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THE  YOUNG  IDEA" 

OR 

COMMON  SCHOOL  CULTURE 


BY 

CAROLINE  B.  LeROW 

COMPILER  OF   "ENGLISH    AS  SHE   IS   TAUGHT.' 


''Truth  is  afraid  of  nothing  but  concealment." — Plato. 


CASSELL    &   COMPANY,    Limited 
J04— io6  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York 


Copyright, 

1888, 

O.  M.  DUNHAM. 

EDUCATIOM  DEFT- 

A II  rights  reserved. 


Presi  W.   L    Mershon  &  Co., 
Rahway,   N.  J. 


DEDICATED 

TO  THE 

FATHERS  AND  MOTHERS  OF  AMERICA 

BY   ONE  WHO 

LOVES  THEIR  CHILDREN. 


543613 


PREFACE. 


The  reader  will  please  take  it  patiently  if  he  find 
what  has  already  been  printed  again  printed  here.  Print- 
ing ink  now  is  like  sympathetic  ink,  it  becomes  as  quickly 
invisible  as  visible  ;  wherefore  it  is  good  to  repeat  old 
thoughts  in  the  newest  books.  Why  should  one  single 
good  observation  or  rule  be  lost  because  it  is  impris- 
oned in  some  monstrous  folio  or  blown  away  in  some 
single  sheet? — [Preface  to  "  Levana ;  or,  The  Doctrine 
of  Education." — Jean  Paul  Friedrich  Richter. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGH 

i,  ''Something  you  Find  Out,"          .        .        .  x 

II.  "  Words,  Words,  Words,"  ....  14 

III.  "The  Sins  of  Numbers,"         ....  27 

IV.  "  The  Verb  and  its  Nomitive,"          ,        .  43 
V.  "The  Circus  of  the  Earth,"        .        .        ^  57 

VI.  "  Seeing  into  Things,"         ....  70 

VII.  "  Intelligence  for  the  World,"                 ,  84 

VIII.  Brains  without  Bodies,        ....  95 

IX.  Hands  and  Heads, 107 

X.  "Senators  Swear," 121 

XI.  "No  Pesky  Palion," 132 

XII.  Green  Apples  and  Gooseberries,      .        .  145 

XIII.  '*A  Double-Scull  Race,"        .       .       .        .168 

XIV.  What  You  Don*t  Know,       ....  191 


''THE   YOUNG   IDEA 

OR 

COMMON  SCHOOL  CULTURE. 


?  J 


CHAPTER  L 

"something  you  find  out." 

The  definition  of  the  word  "  wicked,"  occur- 
ring in  the  reading  lesson,  is  asked  in  a  class  of 
children  from  ten  to  twelve  years  of  age,  of  for- 
eign parentage,  and  living  in  a  tenement-house 
ward. 

"  What  does  *  wicked  '  mean  ?    Some  one  tell." 

"  A  sick  person." 

**Oh,  no.  Wicked  means  very  naughty,  very 
bad.     Tell  me  what  wicked  persons  do." 

"  Thieves,  robbers,  murders,  niggers,  ghosts — " 

"  O  my  dear  children  !  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  ghost,  and  negroes  are  not  all  wicked." 

"  I  know  a  nigger  that  steals.  Our  dog  steals. 
Rats  steals." 

"  Is  it  wicked  for  a  dog  or  a  rat  to  steal  ?  " 

"  No,  ma'am." 

"  Why  not  ?  " 

"  'Cause  they  ain't  got  no  manners." 

The  public  school  teacher  who  gives  this  ver- 


2  .    *'  The    Young  Idea.** 

datirn  report  of  the  lesson  is  unreasonable 
enough  to'  follow  it  with  a  ^complaint  that  her 
*' grade"  requires  her  to  teach  a  few  other 
simple,  familiar  words,  indispensable  to  the  im- 
mediate use  of  the  children.  Among  these  are 
^^  columbine,  geranium,  gorgeous,  chorister,  can- 
opy, surplice,  reverence,  assembled,  languidly," 
etc.,  etc.  What  suggestive  words  to  these  fav- 
ored tenement-house  waifs  and  strays,  sur- 
rounded as  they  are  by  all  the  varied  beauties  of 
nature  and  of  art  ?  Think  of  the  wide  expanse 
over  which  their  eyes  are  privileged  to  roam, — 
what  stretches  of  dirty,  sagging  roofs,  piled  with 
the  choicest  rubbish  ;  crooked  and  blackened 
chimneys  sharply  cut  against  the  brilliant  blue  of 
the  hidden  heavens  ;  graceful  pulley  clothes-lines 
displaying  their  fluttering  treasures  !  What  un- 
limited visions  of  ash  boxes  and  barrels,  rags 
and  garbage  !  What  can  they  not  tell  their  de- 
lighted teacher  about  *'  columbines  and  gerani- 
ums, choristers  and  surplices  ! "  What  visions 
of  old  cathedrals,  flooded  with  *'  dim,  religious 
light  ";  of  the  canopied  altar  ;  of  the  assembled 
congregation  bowing  in  reverence, — languidly  or 
otherwise, — are  instantly  and  vividly  brought  to 
these  young  minds  by  the  mere  casual  mention 
of  these  euphonious  syllables  ! 

Some  equally  unreasonable  teachers  are  prone 
to  quote  the  words  of  Comenius,  who  flattered 
himself  that  he  understood  something  of  the 
philosophy    of    education, —  *' We   must    learn 


*^  The    Young  Idear  3 

things  before  words. "  But  of  what  use  are 
books  and  dictionaries  and  teachers,  unless  the 
books  are  to  hold  the  words,  and  the  diction- 
aries are  to  hold  the  definitions,  and  the  child  is 
to  hold  both  words  and  definitions  until  the 
time  comes  for  the  recitation  which  delivers 
them  over  to  the  teacher? 

Another  lesson  requires  the  definition  of 
*'  monopoly."  Monopoly  !  Simple  word  enough. 
How  terribly  familiar  we  are  with  it  !  How  it  is 
repeated  and  explained  and  discussed  by  the 
press  and  the  public  of  this  country,  blessed 
with  commercial  **  corners,"  great  telegraph  com- 
binations, and  gigantic  railroad  corporations. 
Monopoly  !  Why,  every  man  among  us  knows 
what  that  is,  and  if  any  child  in  the  fourth  grade 
doesn't  know,  it's  high  time  he  did. 

The  dictionary  is  at  hand. 
''  Monopoly — from  two  Greek   words   meaning 
alone  and  to  selL     Sole  permission  and  power  of 
dealing  in  any  goods  or  with  a  particular  coun- 
try ;  exclusive  command  or  possession." 

That  night  the  teacher  in  her  hall  bed-room, 
**  correcting  exercises  "  by  the  light  of  her  kero- 
sene lamp,  reads  with  inexpressible  satisfaction 
that 

*'  Our  grocery  man  is  a  monopoly  because  he 
keeps  on  a  corner  all  alone." 

From  the  next  paper  she  learns  that,  contrary 
to  the  notion  of  some  political  economists,  mo- 
nopoly has  an  utilitarian  element,  since 


4  "  The   Young  Idea.** 

**  Monopoly  is  something  to  clean  the  floor 
with." 

The  dictionary  has  enlightened  the  children 
on  the  meaning  of  *'  Stability,  the  state  of  being 
firm  or  stable."  To  these  narrow-minded  young 
people  this  is,  to  be  sure,  a  little  like  walking 
around  in  a  circle,  leading  one  of  them  to  an- 
nounce that 

"  Stability  is  taking  care  of  a  stable,"  while 
another  one  declares,  "  Stability  is  stables  in 
general." 

There  is  something  tantalizing  in  this  last  ex- 
pression,— *'  in  general."  Now  what  had  the 
child  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote  those  non- 
committal words  which  may  mean  so  much  or 
so  little?  *^  Stables — in  general."  Alas,  the 
kerosene  lamp  sheds  no  light  on  the  mystery. 

A  very  common  and  useful  word  is  "  albino." 
In  this  enlightened  age,  what  sort  of  education 
is  that  which  neglects  to  instruct  children  con- 
cerning the  nature  and  characteristics  of  an 
albino?  The  teacher  is.  faithful  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  "  grade,  "  and  her  midnight  labor 
rewards  her  with  the  discovery  that 

^' An  albino  has  no  eyes." 

**  An  albeno  has  red  eyes  and  hair." 

**  A  mosquito  is  the  child  of  black  and  white 
parents." 

One  might  almost  be  tempted  to  believe  that 
there  is  some  truth  in  the  assertion  of  Tenny- 
son,   *'  Things    seen    are    mightier   than   things 


**  The    Young  Idea''  5 

heard."  Can  it  be  that  old  Comenius  was  not, 
after  all,  so  very  far  astray  ? 

^^  Boys  in  school,"  says  Education,  "  shine 
chiefly  by  the  knowledge  of  words,  for  this  is 
the  mere  work  of  memory  ;  but  in  practical  life 
men  are  useful  and  successful  in  proportion  to 
their  knowledge  of  things." 

Yet  there  are  some  boys  in  school  who  do 
not  shine  very  brilliantly  even  in  their  knowl- 
edge of  words,  judging  from  their  interpretation 
of  some  very  easy  ones. 

^'  Repugnant  "  is  a  good  word,  and  not  too 
common.  It  has  a  sort  of  rude  and  impressive 
strength  about  it.  It  has  been  duly  explained 
and  illustrated  as  the  *^  grade  "  requires.  But 
several  days  have  elapsed  since  the  learning  of 
the  definition,  during  which  other  imposing 
words, — '*  obelisk,  doxology,  evangelist,  ironical, 
tocsin,  epoch,  monastery,"  and  similar  every-day 
terms  with  which  every  intelligent  child  ought 
to  be  familiar, — have  also  been  defined  and  illus- 
trated. Next  in  order,  as  harvest  follows  seed- 
sowing,  comes  the  natural  and  legitimate  exami- 
nation as  a  test  of  the  pupils'  ability  to  "go  up 
higher."  Teachers  can  do  much  ;  they  have 
been  known  to  work  miracles,  but  even  they  can 
not  *^  gather  grapes  from  thorns  or  figs  from 
thistles  "  as  is  proved  by  the  quality  of  the  intel- 
lectual fruit  raised  for  inspection  in  the  edu- 
cational market, 

**  Repugnant,  one  who  repugs." 


6  "  The    Young  Idea'' 

*'  Obelisk,  one  of  the  marks  of  punctuation." 

^'  Doxology,  dropsy  in  the  head." 

*^  Evangelist,  one  who  speaks  from  his  stom- 
ach." 

"Ironical,  something  very  hard." 

**  Tocsin,  something  to  do  with  getting  drunk." 

"  Epoch,  a  ruler  or  son  of  a  king,"  and, — 
can  it  be  possible  that  it  is  a  conscious  and 
intentional  witticism  ? — 

**  Monastery,  a  place  for  monsters." 

The  statement,  '^  A  termagant  is  a  kind  of 
goose,"  no  one  will  be  foolish  enough  to  chal- 
lenge, especially  the  victims  of  the  termagant, 
and  there  is  an  indisputable  truth  in  the  asser- 
tion. 

"A  phenix  is  one  who  sifts  ashes,"  if  we 
accept  it  as  a  description  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  creature  is  supposed  to  extricate  it- 
self from  its  own  debris, 

"  A  sling  is  something  made  from  an  old  shoe," 
is  evidently  an  original  declaration,  and  not  bor- 
rowed from  books,  but  there  is  a  suspicious 
flavor  about  "  Teutonic,  a  very  strong  sort  of 
spring  medicine." 

Truly,  as  another  pupil  explains, 

"  A  definition  is  something  you  find  out." 

Sometimes  it  would  seem  to  be  something  you 
can't  find  out. 

""  He  shall  be  as  a  god  to  me  who  shall  rightly 
divide  and  define,"  says  Plato  ;  therefore,  as 
gods  are  desirable  in  this  commonplace  world  of 


^*  The    Young  Idea'*  7 

ours,  let  our  schools  be  set  to  work  to  manufac- 
ture them  as  speedily  as  possible. 

*'  But  is  not  education    the  process  by  whichS 
the  child   grows   wiser  day  by   day  ?     Shall  he 
study  only   the  words  with  which  he    is   already 
familiar  ?" 

Shall  the  little  toddler,  holding  to  the  chair  to 
balance  himself,  be  taught  to  walk  by  setting 
him  to  march  with  a  regiment  through  the  main 
avenue  of  the  city  ?  Shall  he  be  instructed  how 
to  conduct  himself  at  the  table  by  being  required 
to  carve  the  turkey  for  the  entire  company  ? 

In  the  Introduction  to  his  admirable  "  The- 
saurus of  English  Words,"  Roget  states,  *^  The  in- 
vestigation of  the  distinctions  to  be  drawn  be- 
tween words  apparently  synonymous  I  have  not 
presumed  to  enter  upon.  Its  complete  exhaus- 
tion would  require  the  devotion  of  a  whole  life." 
Oh,  well,  if  that  is  the  case,  why  is  it  not  perfectly 
reasonable  to  ask  the  little  ones,  the  babies  in  lin- 
guistic science,  to  write  out  for  us  the  subtle  dis- 
tinctions which  they  so  readily  perceive  between 
— for  instance — prediction,  prognostication,  au- 
gury, and  prophecy?  They  need  not  be  at  all 
disturbed  by  any  shades  of  meaning  in  disturb- 
ance, perturbation,  rotation,  and  oscillation  ; 
bewildered  by  mystification,  sophistry,  equivo- 
cation, or  miscalculation,  or  perplexed  by  de- 
clension, enervation-,  dereliction,  or  renuncia- 
tion. ^'  Words,"  says  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes, 
"  are    solemn    things."      No   doubt  they   often 


8  "  The    Young  Idear 

prove  so  to  the  little  children,  awed  by  the  sound- 
ing syllables. 

"  It's  a  poor  rule  that  won't  work  both  ways," 
we  are  often  told,  so  if  this  one  is  a  good  one, — 
P  "  The  wider  the  intelligence,  the  simpler  the  ex- 
\pressions  in  which  its  knowledge  is  embodied," 
t;he  converse  must  hold  true, — *^  The  narrower 
the  intelligence,the  more  elaborate  the  expres- 
sions in  which  its — lack  of — knowledge  should 
be  embodied." 

Prof.  Alexander  Bain  has  a  word  to  say  on 
synonyms  *  "  Our  only  course  is  to  let  words  be 
known  with  such  significance  as  the  pupil  can 
readily  imbibe,  leaving  their  more  delicate  shades 
to  be  gathered  by  subsequent  experience.  Truth, 
verity,  veracity,  consistency,  have  a  common 
meaning,  with  differences  that  prevent  their  in- 
discriminate application.  To  point  out  these 
differences  is  to  give  a  lesson  in  the  subject  and 
not  in  the  expression.  Such  lessons  are  not  to 
be  entered  upon  at  random." 

But  it  not  unfrequently  happens  that  fools  in- 
vade without  hesitation  the  territory  which  angels 
would   never   presume  to   enter.     **  Yea,  verily, 
they  have  their  reward  "  in  such  spoils  as 
*'  The  little  bird  sings  with  great  violence." 
"  I  eat  my  pie  with  a  little  impetuosity." 
"  The  ebbulition  is  when  the  tide  goes  way  out 
to  see." 

And,  as  if  these  were  not  enough, 

*'  Savage,  when  a  man  rides  wild  horses." 


"  The   Young  Idear  9 

**  Headstrong  is  to  drink  too  much  whiskey." 
*'  Frantic  is  something  up  in  the  garret." 
**  Language  and  thought  are  inseparable,"  says 
Max  Muiler.  ''  Words  without  thoughts  are  dead 
sounds  ;  thoughts  without  words  are  nothing. 
The  word  is  the  thought  incarnate,"  as,  for  in- 
stance, 

"  A  proturberance  is  an  effervescence." 
**  Ethereal  is  something  relating  to   the  lower 
regions." 

'*  A  sonambulist  is  a  man  that  talks  when  you 
dont  know  where  he  is." 

We  may  sometimes  find  ourselves  taken  un- 
awares by  such  information  as 
*'  A  puUy  is  a  sort  of  chickin." 
"  A  raffle  is  a  kind  of  gun." 
**  Ventilation  is  letting  in  contaminated  air." 
"  Mastincation  is  moving  the  jaws  all  round." 
"  Alkalie  is  acids  mixed  up." 
*'  A  rehearsal  is  what  they  have  at  a  funeral." 
"  Gladiators  grow  in  my  mas  garden." 
"  An  incendiary  is  when  you  go  round  preach- 
ing and  singing  hims." 

*'  Expostulation  is  to  have  the  small-pox," 
and 

"  A  turbot  is  a  kind  of  rhetorical  style."  But 
^'accidents  will  happen  in  the  best  regulated 
families,"  and,  occasionally,  things  may  get  a 
little  mixed  if  there  are  a  great  many  of  them, 
and  the  apartments  of  the  mental  habitation  are 
neither  numerous  nor  spacious. 


lo  "  The    Young  I  dear 

We  learn  further,  as  the  result  of  our  reason- 
able expectations,  that 

**  Lemons  are  austere  because  they  are  sour," 
and  also  that 

"  My  mother  makes  flabjacks  of  austere  milk," 
perhaps  the  same  parent  of  whom  it  is  written, 

"  My  mothers  spoons  is  contemplative,  be- 
cause they  aint  reel  silver." 

Says  Jean  Paul  Friedrich  Richter,  *'  Let  us  not 
be  very  much  astonished  if  the  stream  of  words 
which  is  given  to  the  youth  in  order  that  he  may 
thereby  guide  and  bear  himself  upon  the  ocean, 
should  be  dissipated  by  the  winds  and  waves  on 
every  side." 

Why  can  not  we  content  ourselves  with  the 
kernel  of  truth  contained  in  the  next  definition, 
when  we  consider  the  Latin  cursorius  ? 

**  The  boy  was  cursory  when  he  ran  to  catch 
the  train." 

There  is  a  homely  and  original  flavor  about  the 
domestic  revelation, 

"  My  sister  sets  the  table  for  supper  very 
cursory,  because  she  is  very  quick,"  and  we  are 
sorry  the  pupil  has  any  acquaintance  of  whom 
he  can  say 

"  That  man  was  very  cursury,  because  he  swore 
a  great  deal." 

But  if  a  "  profane  swearer  "  is  not  a  cursory 
man,  what  is  he  ?  As  the  boy  said  of  a  disputed 
word  in  his  lesson,  "  If  r-o-x  doesn't  spell  rocks, 
I'd  like  to  know  what  it  does  spell," 


'' Tlu   Young  Idea,"  ii 

'^  I  am  hungry  and  must  have  an  edible,"  de- 
clares another.  Granted  that  he  tells  the  truth 
about  his  physical  condition — and  it  would  be 
idiotic  to  doubt  it  at  his  age  of  unlimited 
capacity — he  should  certainly  be  given  some- 
thing edible  before  he  is  taught  the  difference 
between  a  noun  and  an  adjective. 

^'One  word  may  mollify  another,"  he  tells  us 
with  a  sweet  unconsciousness  of  how  he  has 
blundered  upon  a  fact,  for  one  wiser  than  he 
has  told  us  that  ^'  a  soft  answer  turneth  away 
wrath." 

"  A  policeman  wears  a  lawsuit,"  may  not  be 
strictly  true  if  one  is  obliged  to  adhere  as 
strictly  to  the  letter  of  the  law,  and  it  is  doubt- 
ful if 

''  David  charmed  Saul  with  a  harpoon." 

Probably  quite  a  contrary  effect  would  have 
been  produced  by  the  use,  no  matter  how  skill- 
ful, of  that  particular  weapon.  It  does  occa- 
sionally seem  as  if 

**  A  problem  is  something  you  cant  ever 
find  out." 

How  the  soul  of  Lord  Byron  would  have  re- 
joiced in  the  definition 

"  A  critic  is  something  to  put  your  feet 
on  to." 

By  an  evident  association  of  ideas,  two  quite 
dissimilar  words  seem  somehow  to  be  **  all  in 
the  family": 

**  Treaty    is   when   your    mother    gives    you 


12  ''The   Young  Idea.'' 

money  to  buy  fire-crackers  and  ice  cream  forth 
of  July." 

^'  Cerebration  is  having  a  good  time  forth  of 
July." 

Bless  the  little  appreciative  soul  ! 

*'  Missionary  when  a  man  goes  to  the  hethen 
and  they  eat  him  all  up,"  is  suggestive  in  that 
little  word  *'all  "  of  no  halfway  work,  whatever 
may  be  thought  of  the  moral  or  physical  ten- 
dency of  the  work  itself.  But  it  becomes  a 
little  difficult  to  "draw  the  line"  between  the 
day  school  and  the  Sunday-school  instruction, 
when  we  are  told 

**  Cannibal  is  two  brothers  that  killed  them- 
selves in  the  Bible." 

**  Our  parlor  is  a  bivalve  because  it  has  fold- 
ing doors,"  is  an  architectural  technicality  be- 
traying its  Latin  origin, and  for  which  the  book, 
not  the  occupant  of  the  parlor,  should  be  held 
responsible. 

"  Indian  rubber  is  very  sarcastic,"  comes 
within  less  than  an  hich  of  the  truth,  and  if 

"  Indian  cabooses  ride  on  their  mothers 
backs,"  perhaps  it  is  more  the  mothers*  business 
than  it  is  ours. 

After  reading  that 

"  She  was  called  a  patrician  because  she  lived 
in  Paris,"  that 

"  A  plebiscite  is  a  very  small  inseck,"  that 

"  A  constellation  of  physicians  had  been 
summoned,"  and  that 


"  The   Young  Idea''  13 

**  The  dog  ensued  the  man  to  the  brook,"  we 
do  not  wonder  that 

"'  The  boy  Avas  sick  with  information,"  though 
if  he  were  asked  questions  about  things  which 
are  to  him  real  things, would  he  tell  you  that  a  pair 
of  skates  was  something  to  eat,  a  bob-sled  some- 
thing to  wear,  or  a  piece  of  pie  something  to  play 
with  ?  But  he  defines  ""  mortal  "  as  ''  everlasting  " 
as  he  has  no  possible  way  of  discriminating 
between  mortality  and  immortality  ;  "  maledic- 
tion," which  he  calls  a  ^*  blessing,"  has  no  dis- 
tinction in  his  mind  from  '*  benediction,"  and 
why  should  it  have — save  by  the  accident  of 
memory  ?  If  to  him  ^'  Remuneration  is  cutting 
off  from  church  membership,"  what  wonder, when 
he  is  practically  talking  in  an  unknown  tongue  ? 

"  So  far  as  the  different  counties  have  been 
heard  from," — as  say  the  newspapers  the  morn- 
ing after  election, — no  child  has  yet  been 
required  to  explain  color  to  a  blind  man,  sound 
to  a  deaf  man,  or  heat  to  an  Esquimau. 

This  early  and  persistent  use  of  words  with- 
out ideas  is  the  worm  at  the  root  of  the 
educational  tree,  and  its  blighting  effect  can  be 
traced  through  every  branch  of  the  child's 
mental  labor.  He  is  from  the  first  in  a  state  of 
bondage  to  words  ;  he  learns  to  depend  wholly 
upon  words  ;  he  conceives  a  ludicrous  defer- 
ence for  words.  In  the  language  of  Bildad  the 
Shuhite,  "  How  long  will  it  be  ere  ye  make  an 
end  of  Words?" 


14  ""  The    Young   Tdea^ 

CHAPTER   II. 
**  words,  words,  words." 

"  Shligiousmore  ?  '* 

"What?" 

"  Shligiousmorlis  ? " 

''WhatV 

"  Shligiousmorlisamples  ?"  and  the  mystified 
merchant  finally  succeeds  in  guessing  that  his 
new  sixteen-year-old  clerk,  just  graduated  from 
a  high  school,  is  trying  to  ask  the  simple  ques- 
tion, "  Shall  I  give  you  some  more  of  the  lists 
of  samples  ?  " 

Reading  stands  first  among  the  traditional 
trinity  of  R's,  and  in  most  schools  an  hour 
a  day  is  allowed  for  it.  With  five  lessons  a 
week  during  the  school  terms,  the  child  of 
twelve  has  received  over  one  thousand  hours 
of  instruction  in  this  one  branch  alone.  Does 
it  follow  that  the  average  sixteen-year-old  boy 
or  girl  can  take  up  to-day's  newspaper  and  read 
it  aloud  comfortably  for  himself  and  pleasantly 
for  other  people  ?  As  we  listen,  both  ears  and 
ideas  become  equally  confused.  Nothing  less 
than  our  eyes  can  assure  us  that  the  "  Coronet 
of  Pine  "  at  which  we  wonder  is  simple  *'  Car- 
bonate of  Lime,"  and  that  "Fleshy  Tin 
Simpletons"  are  "  Pleasures  in  Little  Things." 
We  solidify  "  Falling  Showers  Rapidly  Shining" 


**  The   Young  Idea''  15 

into  a  "  Porcelain  Tower,  Nankin,  China,"  and 
question  whether  the  **  Rolls  of  Carpet "  made 
out  of  the  "  Ruins  of  Carthage,"  prove  the  in- 
destructibility of  matter.  We  yearn  for  some  of 
the  spirit  which  moved  the  little  Southern  picka- 
ninny who,  reporting  the  fact  that  some  one  had 
asked  her  who  she  was,  declared,  "  I  spoke 
up  loud  and  kinder  bright,  and  said,  '  I'se 
Twins  ! '  " 

Is  it  not  barely  possible  that  some  of  this 
mumbling,  stumbling,  distressing,  and  distract- 
ing utterance  may  be  caused  by  some  sin  of 
omission  or  of  commission  in  teaching  a  child  to 
read  ?  Such  a  suspicion  may  occasionally  force 
itself  upon  the  thoughtful  mind. 

A  knowledge  of  vowels  and  consonants  may 
not  be  essential  to  man's  mortal  body  or  immor- 
tal soul,  but  the  simplest  rudiments  of  a  common- 
school  education  always  include  this  distinction 
between  the  letters  of  the  alphabet. 

Nothing  can  be  more  truthful  than  the  first 
page  of  a  certain  text-book  : 

"  What  is  a  letter  ? 

*^  A  letter  is  a  character  used  to  represent  the 
sound  of  the  human  voice. 

'*  What  is  a  vowel  ? 

**  A  vowel  is  a  letter  that  represents  a  com- 
plete sound. 

*'  What  is  a  consonant  ? 

^*  A  consonant  is  a  letter  which  does  not  rep- 
resent a  complete  sound. 


1 6  ''  The   Young  I  dear 

''  What  is  a  syllable  ? 

**  A  syllable  is  one  or  more  letters  combined 
so  as  to  form  a  distinct  sound.  It  is  so  much  of 
a  word  as  can  be  uttered  with  one  impulse  of 
the  voice."     Etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

Yet  after  this  admirable  drill,  the  child  states 
with  a  touching  confidence  that 

"  The  vowels  are  five,  a  e  i  o  u  and  some- 
times w  and  y,  and  is  a  sort  of  liver  com- 
plaint." 

If  the  first  requisite  in  all  speech  is  ability 
to  utter  the  sounds  of  which  words  are  com- 
posed, we  may  as  well  be  introduced  as  speedily 
as  possible  to  Vowel,  Consonant,  Diphthong  & 
Co.  But  what  meaning  is  conveyed  to  the 
average  child  by  the  printed  statement  of  a 
"  complete  sound "  or  "  an  impulse  of  the 
voice  "?  Not  much  apparently,  judging  from 
the  assertion  that 

"  Complete  is  the  kind  of  a  sound  a  little  sheap 
makes,*'  and  that 

*•  An  impulse  is  what  the  doctor  takes  ahold 
of  to  feel  if  you  are  sick." 

Sometimes  a  little  Latin  light  is  turned  on  to 
these  definitions,  and  chirdren  see  that  "  vowel  " 
means  **  vocal,"  and  "  consonant  "  "  sounding 
with."  The  result  of  this  classical  illumination 
is  the  declaration  that 

*'  A  consonant  is  something  you  cant  here 
unless  you  mak  it  make  a  noise  with  something 
else." 


''The    Young  Hear  I7 

This  definition,  while  undoubtedly  true,  fails 
somehow  to  carry  with  it  a  conviction  that  the 
child  has  as  clear  and  satisfactory  a  notion  of 
the  article  as  might  be  desirable.  As  for  a  diph- 
thong, though  it  is  called  "  a  very  contageous 
disease,"  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  imme- 
diate danger  of  the  child's  taking  it. 

Children  are  occasionally  instructed  in  the 
*' breve,"  "macron,"  and  "diaeresis,"  becoming 
perfect  pen-and-ink  artists  in  the  execution  of 
"diacritical  marks."  But  that  ability  does  not 
necessarily  imply  any  comprehension  of  the  poly- 
syllabic adjective,  or  of  the  management  of  the 
muscles  in  making  the  sounds. 

Is  there  "  any  firm  reason  to  be  rendered  " 
why  children  should  be  kept  for  years  calling 
over  the  names  of  the  letters  of  which  words 
are  composed,  when  all  speech  and  reading  con- 
sists simply  of  the  sounds  of  those  letters  ? 

Poetry  is  read  and  studied  for  years  in  the 
schoolroom,  yet  what  realization  have  the  pupils 
of  the  effect  of  these  same  vowels  and  consonants 
upon  the  smoothness,  melody,  and  power  of  the 
verse  ?  "I  cannot  over-rate  for  practical  pur- 
poses the  importance  of  a  study  of  phonetics 
which  gives  insight  into  the  nature  of  connected 
speech,"  says  Francis  B.  Gummere  in  an  admi- 
able  article  on  "  Poetry  in  the  Schoolroom." 

Prof.  Guminere's  use  of  the  words  "practical 
purposes"  is  worth  considering,  for  to  a  large 
class,  nothing  in  the  educational  line  seems  of 


1 8  "  The    Youtig  Idea.'* 

any  consequence  unless  it  can  be  proved  to  be 
*'  practical,"  believing  as  they  do  with  Mr.  Grad- 
grind  that  ^'  in  this  life  we  want  nothing  but 
facts,  sir;  nothing  but  facts." 

Proper  drill  in  phonetics,  or  the  physiology  of 
Towels  and  consonants,  is  practical  because  it 
combines  in  the  highest  degree  vocal  and  phy- 
sical exercise,  thereby  having  a  permanently 
beneficial  effect  upon  the  health  of  the  child. 
Good  health  has  always  a  definite  money  value 
in  a  community. 

In  the  lines  of  work  recently  developed  by 
stenography  and  type-writing,  a  large  number  of 
men  and  women  are  finding  the  bread  for  which 
they  must  labor  as  well  as  pray.  The  immortal, 
much-studied,  and  misunderstood  vowels  and 
consonants  form  the  basis  upon  which  rests  the 
science  of  short-hand  writing ;  while  distinct 
utterance  is  the  only  thing  that  can  render  profit- 
able any  dictation  for  type-writing.  Perhaps  it 
is  unreasonable  for  the  graduates  of  our  schools 
and  colleges  to  complain  that  after  the  vast 
amount  of  instruction  they  have  received  in 
reading,  they  must  return  to  a  second  childhood 
and  learn  the  real  meaning  of  their  familiar  al- 
phabet before  they  can  learn  the  first  principles 
of  phonography. 

*'  Reading  is  an  art  in  which  all  people  should 
indulge,"  states  a  pupil. 

"  Reading  makes  people  very  conversational/' 
declares  another.     Under    some   circumstances 


"  The   Young  I  dear  19 

this  result  might  be  desirable  ;  one  can,  however, 
imagine  cases  where  it  could  not  be  so  con- 
sidered.    But, 

"Reading  does  you  good  all  over  you.  It 
makes  you  stand  up  straight  and  take  lots  of  air 
and  strengthens  the  muscles  of  the  mind." 

This  may  be  considered  a  correct,  practical, 
and  comprehensive  view  of  a  most  important 
branch  of  instruction. 

"  In  America,"  says  Ernest  Legouve,  "  read- 
ing aloud  is  considered  one  of  the  chief  studies 
in  the  public  schools — one  of  the  bases  of 
primary  education."  Yet  who  could  believe  it  on 
hearing  pupils  mumble,  stumble,  halt,  and  choke 
over  some  of  the  simplest  sentences  of  their 
mother  tongue  ?  What  chaotic  grammar,  what 
mutilated  rhetoric,  what  utter  lack  of  sense  ! 

*'  Reading  is  the  first  of  human  blessings," 
says  Prof.  Bell.  "  It  is  the  chief  of  all  the  arts  of 
life.  It  annihilates  for  the  mind  all  obstacles  of 
time  and  space.  To  speak  is  human,  but  to 
read  is  divine.  It  is  the  divinity,  the  intelligence 
in  man  that  reads." 

So  we  think  when  we  listen  to  the  rendering 
of  a  "  poetical  extract." 
**  In  a  bower  of  fragrant  roses  the  musicians  now  compete. 

Blowing  trumpets  with  their  noses  they  inhale  the  odors 
sweet. 
*•  See  the  Queen  how  sad  and  tearful  as  the  King  cuts  off 
her  head. 

One  bright   tress   of  hair  at  parting  how  she  wishes  she 
were  dead. 


20  "  The   Young  Idea'' 

We  may  not  be  specially  interested  in  Jeshua, 
Bani,  Sherebiah,  Jamin,Akkub,  Shabbethai,  with 
their  companions  the  Levites,  until  we  are  told 
that  "  they  read  in  the  book  in  the  law  of  God 
distinctly  and  gave  the  sense  and  caused  them  to 
understand  the  reading."  Thus  does  the  prophet 
Nehemiah  give  us  incidentally  a  fine  elocution 
lesson.  To  get  the  sense  should  be  the  first 
object  in  all  reading,  and  there  should  be  some 
sense  worth  getting  in  whatever  is  read.  Read- 
ing aloud  requires  the  skillful  use  of  the  entire 
vocal  apparatus, — a  purely  physical  exercise, 
the  success  of  which  is  dependent  upon  prac- 
tice. 

The  Superintendent  of  Schools  in  one  of  our 
largest  cities  has  made  wise  provision  for  this 
branch  of  study,  saying  with  reference  to  it  : 
"  The  great  majority  of  children  will  have  little 
use  for  reading  as  a  fine  art,  but  all  must  de- 
pend for  general  information  in  after-life  upon 
their  ability  to  gather  thought  from  the  printed 
page.  Hence  the  importance  of  pupils  compre- 
hending what  they  read."  Surely  this  *'  ability 
to  gather  thought  from  the  printed  page  "  must 
form  the  basis  of  all  school-work. 

*'  Choir,  a  band  of  sinners,"  affirms  the  small 
boy,  glancing  at  his  spelling-book. 

The  result  of  an  equally  hasty  glance  at  his 
grammar  reveals  that 

"  A  pronoun  is  a  word  used  inside  of  a 
nouQ." 


"  The    Young  Idea.''  21 

"  In  the  use  of  verbs  the  order  of  time  must 
be  deserved." 

Astonishing  facts  are  learned  in  physiology: 

*'  The  body  is  projected  from  the  effect  of 
sudden  shocks." 

"  The  albumen  is  about  forty  thousand  parts 
of  the  blood." 

"  in  the  movement  of  the  heart  the  two  auri- 
cles contact." 

*' The  action  of  the  larnyx  is  to  deform  the 
voice." 

He  gathers  many  facts  from  history: 

"  The  Romans  had  made  no  naval  conquest 
because  they  possessed  no  feet." 

"  The  soldiers  marched  down  the  hill  panta- 
loon after  pantaloon." 

*'  Carthage  was  taken  by  Cicero  who  was  set  on 
fire  and  continued  to  rage  for  seventeen  days." 

*'  The  Crusades  were  millinery  expeditions 
undertaken  by  the  Christians." 

^'  The  cotton-gin  was  invaded  by  Whitney  in 

I794-" 

*'  At  the  close  of  the  last  war  the  Federal 
Army  nominated  and  numbered  one  million 
men." 

*'  The  Indians  were  of  a  weak  constitution  and 
morality  was  great  among  them." 

*'  When  the  news  of  the  Stamp  x\ct  arrived 
Boston  was  muffled  and  rang  a  funeral  peal." 

How  valuable  the  "thoughts"  thus  "gath- 
ered "! 


2  2  "  The    Young  Idea** 

Here  is  a  gem  from  a  certain  First  Reader  : 

"  This  is  Jane's  doll.  It  is  a  new  doll.  Jane 
will  make  doll  a  dress.  Doll  cannot  walk  or 
hear  or  talk." 

This  is  supposed  to  be  a  vast  improvement 
upon  former  ''  Firsts,"  whose  stereotyped  lesson 
usually  ran  in  this  wise  : 

*'  I  see  a  cat.  The  cat  is  on  the  mat,"  etc., 
plunging  the  helpless  little  one  into  an  endless 
maze  of  cats  and  bats  and  hats  and  mats  and 
rats  and  vats.  Occasionally  this  inspiring  intel- 
lectual exercise  was  varied  by  the  introduction 
of  a  new  animal : 

**  I  see  a  pig.  The  pig  is  big.  The  big  pig 
can  dig,"  etc.,  stringing  along  harmonious  and 
familiar  monosyllables  through  all  the  changes 
of  jig  and  fig  and  rig  and  wig,  apropos  of  the 
original  pig.  No  wonder  children  "  hate  such 
books,"  and  that  they  scoff  at  the  information 
that  '*  Doll  cannot  walk  or  hear  or  talk."  Many 
of  our  reading  books  fill  children's  mouths  with 
intellectual  husks  which  they  are  expected 
to  swallow  with  avidity,  and  digest  to  mental 
profit. 

Such  '*  reading  lessons  "  remind  one  of  the 
school  presided  over  by  Bradley  Headstone  and 
attended  by  Charley  Hexam,  where  **  Young 
women  were  expected  to  profess  themselves  en- 
thralled by  the  good  child's  book,  the  Adven- 
tures of  Little  Margery,  who  resided  in  the  vil- 
lage cottage  by  the  mill  ;  severely  reproved  and 


**  The    Young  Idea.'*  23 

morally  squashed  the  miller  when  she  was  five 
and  he  was  fifty  ;  divided  her  porridge  with  the 
singing  birds  ;  denied  herself  a  new  nankeen 
bonnet  on  the  ground  that  the  turnips  did  not 
wear  nankeen  bonnets,  neither  did  the  sheep  who 
ate  them,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

Of  all  the  fine  **  rules  for  reading,"  the  one  de- 
vised by  some  well-meaning  idiot  is  the  most 
destructive  to  common  sense, — ^*  Always  keep 
the  voice  up  at  a  comma  and  drop  it  at  a  pe- 
riod." Uncounted  hours  of  hard  work  are  spent 
by  faithful  teachers — firm  in  the  belief  that  the 
antiquity  of  this  rule  proves  its  value — in  forc- 
ing upon  pupils  this  punctuation  paralysis, 
'^Oh,  the  pity  of  it,  lago,  the  pity  of  it  !  "  that 
innocent  little  children  should  be  made  to 
believe  that  pause  and  inflection  depend  not 
upon  sense,  but  upon  grammatical  construc- 
tion ! 

And  what  surpassing  wisdom  is  shown  in  im- 
pressing a  child  with  the  idea  that  the  worst 
errors  in  reading  are  verbal  ones,  and  in  putting 
the  entire  class,  like  a  pack  of  hounds,  on  the 
scent  of  the  nervous  and  breathless  reader,  ready 
to  fall  upon  him  and  tear  him  if  by  any  chance 
he  leaves  out  or  puts  in  a  word  ! 

Is  not  the  cause  of  nine-tenths  of  the  sense- 
less, disagreeable  reading,  so  common  in  our 
schools,  due  to  the  fact  that  children,  from  the 
beginning  of  their  school  work,  conceive  the 
notion  that  reading  is  simply  the  utterance  of 


24  *'  The   Young  Idea:' 

words,  and  the  glibber  the  utterance,  the  better 
the  reading  ? 

A  knowledge  of  spelling,  distinct  articulation, 
correct  pronunciation,  even  the  definition  of 
words, — while  these  things  are  no  obstacles  to 
good  reading,  they  are  not  Reading,  any  more 
than  boards,  nails,  bricks,  and  mortar  are  houses. 
*'  The  letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit  maktth 
alive." 

Will  Carleton  has  given  us  a  description  of  a 
reading  class  in  which,  even  with  distressing  dis- 
regard of  the  letter,  the  spirit  tended  to  intel- 
lectual life  and  interest: 

"  That  row  of  elocutionists  which  stood  so  straight  in  line, 
And  charged  at  standard  literature  with  amiable  design  ; 
In  Romance  and  Philosophy  we  settled  many  a  point. 
And  made  what  poems  we  assailed  to  creak  at  every  joint  ; 
We  took  a  hand  at  History,  its  altars,  spin  s,  and  flames, 
And  uniformly  mispronounced  the  most  important  names  ; 
We  did  not  spare  the  energy  in  which  our  words  were  clad; 
We  gave  the  meaning  of  the  text  with  all  the  light  we  had; 
And  many  authors  that  we  love  you  with  me  will  agree 
Were  first  time  introduced  to  us  in  District  No.  Ihree." 

Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  says  very  wisely, "  Much 
attention  is  paid  to  finding  out  the  best  methods 
of  teaching  children  to  read.  The  best  method, 
the  thing  no  one  thinks  of,  is  a  desire  to  learn." 
But  this  desire  does  not  appear  to  be  fostered  to 
any  appreciable  extent  by  the  process  carried 
on  in  countless  school-rooms — as  *' required  by 
the  grade  " — and  thus  described  by  some  one 
who  knows  something  about  it  :  ^*  In  four  lines 


"  The    Young  Idea"  25 

we  had  eighteen  new  words  to  be  learned.  To 
teach  these  words  without  drilling  upon  the 
sentences  until  reading  degenerates  into  parroty, 
involves  so  much  weary  word-calling  that  the 
patience  of  the  kindest  teacher  and  the  attention 
of  the  most  obedient  class  must  wear  out  long 
before  the  task  is  done."  This  is  not  exactly^ 
*^  to  join  thinking  with  reading,"  which  Isaac 
Taylor  declares  to  be  "  one  of  the  first  maxims 
and  one  of  the  easiest  operations."        * 

But  how  about  the  result  of  a  *^  a  desire  to 
learn  "  ?  Take  the  case  of  the  ordinary  child  in 
the  ordinary  "  well-to-do,"  middle-class  family. 
In  school,  why  is  not  his  geography  lesson  quite 
as  good — and  sometimes  better — material  for 
elocutionary  work  than  the  regular  reading 
book  ? — which  in  some  cases  he  learns  by  heart 
and  ^'  reads  "  without  even  looking  at  it.  At  home 
there  are  daily  papers,  books,  and  magazines.  He 
takes  part  in  the  conversation,  thereby  naturally 
and  constantly  increasing  his  vocabulary.  He 
reads  a  story  because  he  wants  to  read  it.  We 
may  be  reasonably  sure  that  it  is  not  about  a 
horse  that  can't  fly,  or  a  fish  that  can't  sing,  or  a 
dog  that  can't  play  the  piano.  Possibly  it  is 
about  a  boy  who  ran  away  to  sea.  If,  in  mani- 
festation of  our  interest,  we  ask  him  to  read  it 
aloud,  the  probability  is  that  we  shall  learn  "  the 
facts  in  the  case,"  though  the  vocal  expression  of 
them  may  not  be  all  that  is  desirable  in  the  way  of 
ease  or  accuracy.      His  interest  in  the  story  will 


26  "  The    Young  Idea^ 

force  upon  him  some  knowledge  of  punctuation 
points,  and  he  comes  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
fact  that  punctuation  is  really  intended  for  a  help 
instead  of  a  hinderance.  Having  some  human 
interest  in  the  matter,  he  will  read  it  in  a  human 
tone,  as  people  talk, — and  he  knows  as  well  as 
we  do  how  they  talk,  if  neither  words  nor  subject 
are  beyond  his  comprehension. 

Still  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  proper  teaching 
of  Reading  is  the  most  profitable,  as  it  can  be 
made  the  most  pleasant  work  done  in  the  school- 
room, for  it  is  the  key  to  all  knowledge  under 
the  sun.  A  taste  for  reading,  a  love  of  books, — 
if  our  schools  could  but  give  these  gifts  to  their 
graduates  ! 

Says  an  English  educator,  *'  These  are  the 
days,  unfortunately,  in  which  only  such  things 
as  pay  in  examination  receive  attention,  and 
reading  is  not  one  of  them,"  but  sometimes  we 
^'by  indirection  find  direction  out,"  as  has  been 
lately  proved  in  New  York.  The  superintendent 
of  that  city  writes  :  "  We  have  found  out  where 
we  can  reduce  the  work  in  many  studies  by  com- 
bination." (Would  tliat  the  ''  finding  out"  had 
come  years  ago,  although  it  is  '^  better  late  than 
never.")  ''  History  has  been  made  a  reading  exer- 
cise. It  will  be  taught  by  reading  and  talking, 
and  not  so  much  for  elocution  as  to  rouse  the  in- 
tellect and  waken  the  interest."  Here,  indeed,  in 
Dundreary  dialect,  is  the  "  killing  of  two  stones 
with  one  bird."     May  it  sing  louder  and  more 


"  The   Young  I  dear  27 

cheerily  than  ever  after  the  accomplishment  of 
such  desirable  destruction  ! 

And  to  reach  the  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter  in  the  words  of  Thomas  Carlyle  :  "  If  we 
think  of  it,  all  that  the  university  or  final  high- 
est school  can  do  for  us  is  still  but  what  the  first 
School  began  doing — teach  us  to  Read,"  while 
we  say  a  hearty  amen  to  those  other  words  of 
Ernest  Legouve,  "In  the  name  of  physical  and 
mental  well-being,  I  demand  that  the  art  of 
reading  aloud  shall  be  ranked  among  the  princi- 
pal branches  of  public  education." 


CHAPTER  III. 

"the  sins  of  numbers." 

The  child  who  wrote  **  Arithmetic  is  the  sins 
of  numbers,"  told  more  truth  than  he  intended. 
In  many  schools  the  teaching  of  arithmetic  is  car- 
ried not  only  to  an  unprofitable,  but  to  an  iniqui- 
tous extent,  and  might  well  lead  one  to  exclaim 
with  sore  and  sorrowful  heart,  "  O  Education  ! 
What  crimes  are  committed  in  thy  name  1  " 

"  Mathematics  is  that  branch  of  science  which 
the  results  are  accomplished  by  brain  work  and 
is  letters  and  figures  and  signs.  These  signs 
are  Arabs  and  Romans  and  were  first  found  in 
Europe." 


28  «  The   Young  Idear 

Letters,  Figures,  and  Signs.  Add  these  to 
Words  and  the  pupil's  outfit  is  complete. 

Just  one  year  ago  there  was  a  tremendous 
rattling  among  the  educational  dry  bones, 
caused  by  Gen.  Francis  A.  Walker's  bold  attack 
upon  the  '^figure  fiend,"  by  which  name  this 
mathematical  monster  has  come  to  be  known. 
As  President  of  the  Boston  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy, he  is  supposed  to  know,  and  to  care,  some- 
thing about  educational  matters.  His  words  can 
not  be  ignored  or  criticised  as  the  wild,  irrespon- 
sible, incendiary  utterances  of  a  fanatic  deter- 
mined upon  educational  arson, — and  what  are 
these  words  ? 

"It  is  one  of  the  gravest  accusations  brought 
against  our  public  schools  as  at  present  admin- 
istered, that  the  old-fashioned  readiness  and 
correctness  of  ciphering  have  been  to  a  large  de- 
gree sacrificed  by  the  methods  which  it  is  now 
proposed  to  reform.  A  false  arithmetic  has 
grown  up  and  has  largely  crowded  out  of  place 
that  true  arithmetic  which  is  nothing  but  the 
art  of  numbers." 

This  *'  false  arithmetic  "  is  the  name  which  he 
applies  to  the  exercises  in  logic,  or  the  art  of 
reasoning,  which,  smuggled  into  mathematical  in- 
struction, he  considers  an  abuse.  If  taught  at 
all,  he  stipulates  that  they  should  be  taken  from 
books,  *' prepared  by  eminent  teachers  of  the 
science  of  mind,  and  the  work  should  be  con- 
ducted by  teachers  competent  to  teach  the  art 


"  The    Young  Idea.''  29 

of  reasoning.  This  bastard  arithmetic  fails  to 
perform  the  true  function  of  that  study  of  our 
public  schools,  while  wasting  the  time  of  the 
pupils,  perplexing  their  minds,  worrying  their 
tempers,  rasping  their  nerves," 

General  Walker  is  perfectly  fair  in  his  way  of 
dealing  with  this  matter.  He  asks  those  who 
consider  this  "  an  extravagant  denunciation  "  to 
plainly  say  so.  He  presents  a  domestic  picture, 
an  interior  by  the  artist  Education,  which  he 
believes  every  Boston  father  to  have  seen,  and 
which  thousands  of  other  fathers  in  less  favored 
localities  have  been  privileged  to  look  upon, — 
''  children  puzzling  and  worrying  ten,  fifteen,  or 
twenty  minutes  over  a  practical  problem,"  and 
after  an  evening  spent  in  this  way,  going  to  bed 
hot,  tired,  and  perhaps  tearful,  and  altogether 
unfitted  for  that  sound  and  healthful  sleep  which 
should  close  every  child's  day.  *'  I  have  myself 
had  four  children  in  the  grammar  schools  where 
home  study  was  allowed,  and  each  one  of  them 
in  turn  I  have  seen  tormented  in  this  way." 

In  a  late  magazine  article  he  says  in  connec- 
tion with  this  same  matter,  "  I  am  myself  no  bad 
mathematician,  but  I  have  not  infrequently  been 
puzzled,  and  at  times  foiled,  by  the  subtle  logical 
difficulty  running  through  one  of  these  problems 
given  to  my  own  child.  The  head  master  of  one 
of  our  Boston  High  Schools  confided  to  me  that 
he  had  sometimes  been  unable  to  unravel  one  of 
these  tangled  skeins  in  trying  to  help  his  own 


3o  "  The    Young  Idea'' 

daughter  through  her  evening  work."  This, 
then,  must  be  the  acme  of  development  in  our 
system, — the  child  becomes  father  to  the  man 
and  the  pupil  surpasses  the  professor.  "  The 
wisdom  you  teach  me  I  will  execute,  and  it  shall 
go  hard  but  I  will  better  the  instruction." 

Another  statement  is  made  by  the  same 
authority,  which  teachers  must  sorrowfully  ad- 
mit to  be  true.  "  Pupils  familiar  with  diffi- 
cult theorems,  and  masters  of  complicated 
formulae, often  vitiate  their  work  by  simple  nu- 
merical mistakes  such  as  would  have  been 
impossible  had  they  been  properly  trained  in 
the  earlier  stages  of  their  mathematical  edu- 
cation. If  the  high  schools  are  blamed  for 
this,  the  masters  justify  themselves  by  alleging 
that  pupils  come  to  them  without  being  able  to 
add  or  multiply,  subtract  or  divide,  or  even  to 
count  with  accuracy."  As  for  these  "earlier 
stages,"  the  grammar-school  teachers  admit  the 
charge,  but  plead  lack  of  time  for  thoroughness 
in  the  work  required  of  them, — and  not  only  in 
this  branch,  but  in  nearly  all  the  others. 

"  To  this  complexion  have  we  come  at  last." 
High  school  teachers  of  Literature,  History, 
Trigonometry,  Astronomy,  groaning  together  that 
their  pupils  do  not  know  How  to  Spell,  How  to 
Read,  How  to  Cipher!  "There  is  something 
more  than  natural  in  this,  if  philosophy  could 
find  it  out." 

The  Journal  of  Education  is  responsible  for 


*^  The   Young  I  dear  3 1 

this  statement  :  "  In  forty  classes,  one-half  of 
them  pupils  above  twelve  years  of  age,  there  were 
several  failures  in  the  question,  If  you  buy 
nine  three-cent  stamps  and  give  a  fifty-cent  piece 
in  payment,  how  much  change  will  you  receive  ?" 
And  the  master  of  a  Boston  high  sghool  for 
this :  "  I  was  informed  by  the  president  of  a 
Boston  bank  that,  at  an  examination  held  with 
reference  to  an  appointment  in  his  institution, 
out  of  several  graduates  of  various  high  schools 
of  this  vicinity,  not  one  was  found  able  to  add 
the  columns  of  figures  given  him,  without  errors." 
And  the  comment  is  made  by  General  Walker, 
*'  In  a  store,  a  shop,  a  factory,  or  on  a  railroad, 
a  lad  who  cannot  set  down  figures  and  add 
them  rightly  is  little  better  than  a  cripple. 
Now  if  any  greater  wrong  short  of  permanent 
injury  to  health,  can  be  done  a  child  than  to 
send  him  into  the  world  to  earn  his  living, 
without  the  ability  to  conduct  numerical  opera- 
tions accurately  and  with  reasonable  facility,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  see  what  that  injury  would 
consist  of.  Employers  have,  literally,  no  use  for 
boys  who  make  mistakes  in  numbers.  Such  a 
failing  offsets  the  best  training,  otherwise,  of 
mind  and  hand." 

It  would  be  well  if  with  old  Polonius  we  could 
'*  — find  out  the  cause  of  this  effect  ; 

Or,  rather  say,  the  cause  of  this  defect; 

For  this  effect,  defective,  comes  by  cause." 

General  Walker  finds  abundant  explanation  in 


32  "  The   Young  I  dear 

the  fact  that  "  nine-tenths  of  the  time  given  to 
arithmetic  is  occupied  by  technical  apphcations 
of  numerical  principles,  or  are  worse  than  wasted 
by  logical  puzzles  unsuited  to  the  child's  age  and 
mental  strength." 

Some  of  the  remaining  tenth  is  devoted  to  the 
expansion  of  the  intellect  on  the  technical  terms 
of  the  science. 

*'  Substraction  is  the  minuend  and  the  sub- 
stracted  end." 

'"''  When  there  are  equal  numbers  it  is  called 
multeplication." 

"  A  partial  product  is  one  of  the  things  you 
multiply  with." 

''  A  quotient  is  a  prime  facter  and  is  always  a 
number  or  some  part  of  a  number." 

**  A  composite  number  is  just  the  same  as  a 
prime  facter." 

"  Eagles,  dimes,  and  mills  make  all  a  man's 
money,  and  sometimes  he  has  not  got  any  Mills." 

A  member  of  the  Boston  School  Board,  Dr. 
Samuel  Eliot,  says,  "  Arithmetic,  like  any  other 
study  in  the  schools,  is  merely  a  means,  not  an 
end.  Give  it  the  lion's  share  and  it  will  play  the 
lion's  part,"  and  it  generally  gets  the  lion's 
^hare.  Among  the  original  ''  three  Rs  "  it 
stood  "  first  and  foremost,"  and  like  truth,  de- 
scribed by  Plato,  was  considered  ^'  the  begin- 
ning of  every  good  thing  in  heaven  or  earth." 
But  why  ?  General  Walker  quotes  those  who 
believe    that   "in  sound   educational    theories, 


"  The    Young  I  dear  33 

the  exercises  given  to  young  pupils  ought  to  be 
difficult,  complicated,  perplexing,  and  distressing 
in  order  that  the  child's  mind  and  spirit  may 
undergo  a  due  preparation  for  the  difficult  duties 
and  hard  problems  of  life,  one  enthusiastic 
writer  of  this  school  going  so  far  as  to  declare 
that  it  is  essential  to  good  education  that  the 
sums  set  for  the  pupil  should  be  not  only  diffi- 
cult, but  sometimes  actually  impossible  to  him 
in  his  then  stage  of  development."  This,  being 
interpreted,  must  mean,  He  must  swallow  what 
he  can't  even  take  into  his  mouth  ;  he  must  see 
things  invisible  to  his  sight,  handle  things  beyond 
his  reach  ;  in  short,  he  must  do  what  is  impossi- 
ble to  be  done.  Well  may  the  poor  victim  ex- 
claim in  the  words  of  Emerson, 

**  The  Asmodean  feat  is  mine, 
To  spin  my  sand  heap  into  twine." 

But  this  able  champion  for  the  children  has 
not  trusted  entirely  to  his  own  judgment  in  the 
case.  He  quotes  Sir  William  Hamilton,  Eng- 
land's greatest  philosopher  in  this  century: 
*'  That  mathematics  can,  possibly  educate  to 
any  active  exercise  of  the  power  of  observation, 
either  as  reflected  upon  ourselves  or  as  directed 
on  the  affairs  of  life  and  the  phenomena  of 
nature,  will  not  be  maintained.  That  they  do 
not  cultivate  the  power  of  generalization  is 
equally  apparent.  Are  mathematics,  then,  of  no 
value  as  an  instrument  of  mental  culture  ?     To 


34  "  The   Young  Idea'' 

this  we  answer  that  their  study,  if  pursued  in 

moderation,  may  be  beneficial  in  the  correction 

of  a  certain   vice,   and  in  the   formation  of  its 

'  corresponding  virtue.     The  vice  is  the  habit  of 

/  mental  distraction  ;  the  virtue,  the  habit  of  con- 

j  tinuous  attention.     This  is  the  single  benefit  to 

(which  the  study  of  mathematics  can  justly  pre- 

'tend  in  the  culiivation  of  the  mind." 

G.  Stanley  Hall,  Professor  of  Pedagogics  in 
the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  writes  :  "  The 
purer  the  mathematics  for  boys  of  from  ten  to 
fourteen  years  of  age,  the  better,  it  seems  to  me. 
Many  of  our  arithmetics  presuppose  algebra  and 
geometry.  Problems  in  brokerage,  architecture, 
custom-house  practices,  etc.  are  taught  just  as 
in  the  old  Hindoo  mathematics  a  taste  for  poe- 
try, and  in  mediaeval  arithmetics  moral  and 
religious  maxims  and  even  systems,  as  well  as 
historical  information,  were  inculcated  in  the 
form  of  '  sums.'" 

Perhaps  the  arithmetic  of  the  Middle  Ages  is 
responsible  for  some  of  the  following  state- 
ments : 

"  Brokerage  is  the  allowance  for  the  braker- 
age  and  leekerage  of  bottles." 

''  Insurance  is  when  you  die  or  burn  up  your 
money  and  the  insurance  oflfice  pays  you  for  it." 

*•  Exchange  in  Europe  is  when  you  go  through 
London,  Paris  and  places." 

"  When  you  exchange  money  all  you  have  to 
do  is  to  get  the  right  change." 


''  The   Young  Idear  35 

^*  The  payment  of  a  note  on  the  back  is  called 
an  enforcement." 

*'  Accurate  interest  is  according  to  the  number 
of  dates,  the  days,  and  the  interest." 

Prof.  Hall  also  says,  in  words  more  truthful 
than  complimentary  :  '*  American  teachers  seem 
to  me  to   have  spun   the  simple  and  immediate  .     ^ 

relations   and  properties   of    number  over  with    ,,        y". 
pedantic  difficulties.     The  four  rules,  fractions,    y^ivy 
factoring,   decimals,   proportion,  per  cent,   and    '''    "^"^ 
roots,  is  not  this  all  that  is  essential  ?     The  best 
European  text-books   I  know  do  only  this,  and^ 
are  in  the  smaller  compass,  for  they  look  only  at 
facility  in  pure  number-relations,  which   is  hin- 
dered by  the  irrelevant  material  publishers  and 
bad  teachers  use  as  padding." 

George  H.  Howison,  Professor  of  Philosophy 
in  the  University  of  California,  declares,  ''  My 
experience  and  my  theories,  founded  on  my 
professional  studies  and  practice,  have  alike 
made  it  with  me  a  matter  of  settled  conviction 
that  not  only  in  mathematical,  but  in  all  ele- 
mentary training,  though  in  elementary  mathe- 
matical teaching  pre  eminently,  the  first  thing  is 
to  get  the  pupil  perfectly  familiar  with,  and  as 
nearly  as  possible  infallibly  accurate,  in  funda- 
mental facts  and  operations.  I  believe  our  cur- 
rent practice  in  this  respect  has  for  some  years — 
say  the  last  thirty — been  going  seriously  wrong." 

It  must  have  been  during  this  period  that  there 
came  into  being 


3^  "  The   Young  Idea,'* 

"  The  metric  system  of  waits  and  measures. 
Its  just  acoming  into  fashion  in  the  U.  States." 

Perhaps  other  equally  perspicacious  definitions 
came  into  fashion  when  '*  current  practice" 
made  a  start  in  this  wrong  direction. 

"  If  there  are  no  units  in  a  number  you  have 
to  fill  it  up  with  all  zeros." 

"  Units  of  any  order  are  expressed  by  writing 
in  the  place  of  the  order." 

"  A  factor  is  sometimes  a  faction,"  and  some- 
times it  makes  an  equal  amount  of  trouble. 

"  If  fractions  have  a  common  denominator, 
find  the  difference  in  the  denominator." 

"  Interest  on  interest  is  confound  interest," 
though  a  man  may  sometimes  be  confounded 
by  getting  neither  principal  nor  interest.  Yet 
the  principal  is,  after  all,  of  very  little  ac- 
count if 

"  Principal  is  not  valuable  like  interest  and 
is  never  paid." 

"  The  rule  for  proportion  is  to  multiply  it  by 
all  the  terms." 

Readers  of  history  may  think  that  they  under- 
stand the  motive  of  Wat  Tyler,  who  headed  a 
rebellion  against  Parliament  five  hundred  years 
ago.  The  hero  of  this  insurrection  is  set  forth 
by  a  pupil  as 

'^  What  Tyler  was  a  taxgatherer  in  the  reign 
of  Richard  Second."  And  when  we  learn 
that 

**  A  Pole  tax  is  laid  on  top  of  your  head,"  we 


"  The    Young  Idear  37 

cannot  so  much  wonder  that  he  found  a  hundred 
thousand  men  ready  to  resent  the  injury,  though 
after  all,  that  is  not  so  bad  as  a  battle-ax  applied 
to  the  same  place. 

*^  You  can  find  a  hypothesis  if  you  have  a  base 
perpendicular,"  although  that  may  depend  some- 
what upon  what  kind  of  a  hypothesis  you  desire 
to  find. 

''When  you  multiply  two  numbers  together 
they  had  ought  to  be  just  equal."  But  things 
are  not  always  what  they  ought  to  be,  even  in 
the  "  exact  sciences." 

''  The  parties  are  bound  together  in  insurance 
by  policy,"  not  the  only  parties  who  appear  to 
be   bound  together  in  the  same  way. 

"  The  underwriters  are  the  sure  parties." 

*'  A  tax  on  a  man  is  called  a  poll  tax  when  he 
has  not  any  property." 

"  No  man  will  live  long  enough  to  be  ensured 
unless  he  has  great  expectation  of  life." 

But  Reform  never  takes  an  express  train  to 
travel  in,  and  was  never  known  to  hurry  to  catch 
the  one  it  does  take.  Very  lately  a  parent  ven- 
tured to  write  to  .one  of  the  Boston  dailies  what 
is  presumably  a  statement  of  facts  and  an  hon- 
est expression  of  opinion  : 

''  Has  the  reform  voted  in  last  year's  school 
board,  set  on  foot  by  General  Walker,  taken  the 
back  track  ?  I  fully  believe  that  our  children 
are  taxed  most  unreasonably  and  beyond  their 
strength  in  working  over  sums  which  are  simply 


38  '^  The    Young  Idea'' 

puzzles, and  which  could  be  of  no  possible  ser- 
vice in  business  life.  I  know  a  boy  who  worked 
last  evening  for  more  than  two  hours  over  one 
sum.  His  other  studies,  which  were  vastly  more 
important,  were  neglected.  Arithmetic  makers 
seem  to  have  exhausted  themselves  in  compiling 
puzzling  sums  which  our  boys  and  girls,  in  at- 
tempting to  solve,  are  wasting  energies  which 
might  be  much  better  employed." 

Within  forty-eight  hours  appeared  an  indignant 
reply  to  the  communication,  written  by  a  "  Bos- 
ton Teacher,"  and  about  six  times  as  long  as  the 
complaint. 

^'  There  are  more  than  60,000  children  in  the 
Boston  public  schools.  Of  these  probably,  not 
a  thousand  have  home  lessons  in  mathematics, 
not  two  per  cent.,  and  of  these  probably  not  a 
hundred,  or  one  pupil  in  six  hundred,  are  worked 
beyond  their  strength  over  problems  in  mathe- 
matics. There  may  be  some,  for  it  is  unreason- 
able to  suppose  that  every  one  of  the  1200  teachers 
is  strictly  judicious,  but  admitting  that  one  in 
five  hundred  is  overworked,  is  that  a  sufficient 
ground  for  a  wholesale  condemnation  ? 

*'  There  is  too  much  of  this  condemnation  with- 
out knowledge  and  without  fnvestigation.  It  is 
laughable  to  teachers,  or  would  be  if  it  were  not 
a  serious  matter,  to  read  many  of  the  things 
that  are  said  against  the  schools  which  fifteen 
minutes'  inquiry  at  the  nearest  school-house 
would  show  to  be  not  only  baseless,  but  purely 
nonsensical." 


''  The    Young  Idea''  39 

Not  even  "  one  child  in  five  hundred  '*  ought 
to  be  "  overworked,"  nor  would  be  if  there  were 
not  some  error  somewhere.  If  only  "  one  pupil  in 
six  hundred"  finds  the  work  beyond  his  strength 
what  a  simple  matter  to  *^  promote  backward" 
the  one  six-hundredth  of  a  school,  and  thereby 
not  only  preserve  the  welfare  of  the  child,  but 
the  reputation  of  the  school.  To  paraphrase 
the  well-known  words  of  Carlyle,  "  That  one 
child  should  be  overworked  who  has  capacity 
for  suffering  from  its  effects,  this  I  call  a  tragedy, 
were  it  to  happen  twenty  times  a  minute — as  by 
some  calculation  it  does." 

While  many  ^'  purely  nonsensical  things  are 
said  against  the  schools,"  there  is  some  ^'con- 
demnation "  which  has  the  appearance,  at  least, 
of  being  the  result  of  '*  knowledge."  Of  course 
the  parents  whose  money  supports  these  schools 
and  whose  children  fill  them,  have  really  no  in- 
terest in  their  management,  and  should  not  be 
allowed  to  interfere  with  them.  It  is  sheer  pre- 
sumption for  a  father  or  mother  to  venture  any 
sort  of  criticism.  But  as  long  as  a  few  of  them 
will  be  so  impertinent,  disagreeable  truths  will 
occasionally  be  uttered  in  spite  of  protest. 

But  whatever  progress  mathematical  reform  is 
making  in  Boston,  there  are  many  other  places 
where  it  is  either  creeping  at  a  snail's  pace  or 
standing  stock-still.  A  few  days  ago  a  meeting 
of  principals  was  held  not  three  miles  from  the 
largest  city  in  the  Old  Bay   State,  during   which 


40  *'  The   Young  Idea!' 

one  of  the  gentlemen  made  the  astounding  state- 
ment, ^*  Some  teachers  of  arithmetic  deserve  capi- 
tal punishment  for  the  incomprehensible  prob- 
lems they  give  their  pupils." 

The  profession  has  a  large  number  of  Pumble- 
chooks  who,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  may  be  brought 
to  see  the  error  of  their  mathematical  ways. 
Poor  Pip  was  a  representative  sufferer  from  the 
mathematical  mania  of  this  "  corn-chandler  in 
the  nearest  town,"  never  content  to  keep  his  fig- 
uring to  his  own  affairs.  *'  On  my  politely  bid- 
I  ding  him   good  morning,    he  said,   pompously, 

*  Seven  times  nine,  boy  ? '  and  before  I  had 
swallowed  a  morsel  he  began  a  running  sum  that 
lasted  through  breakfast.  '  Seven  ? '  *  And 
four?'    'And  eight?'    *  And  six?'    *  And  two?' 

*  And  ten  ? '  And  so  on.  And  after  each  figure 
was  disposed  of,  it  was  much  as  I  could  do  to  get 
a  bite  or  a  sup  before  the  next  one  came." 

And  the  Pumblechook  by  the  name  of  Murd- 
stone,  who  was  eternally  tormenting  poor  little 
David  Copperfield  with  his  "'  If  I  go  into  a  cheese- 
monger's shop  and  buy  five  thousand  double- 
Gloucester  cheeses  at  fourpence-halfpenny  each, 
present  payment — "  Perish  the  whole  of  them 
with  their  perennial  propositions  ! 

How  strange  it  is  that  so  many  children  are 
poor  mathematicians,  and  that  the  majority  of 
them  detest  arithmetic  even  as  cordially  as  they 
do  grammar,  when  we  "  require  them  to  extract 
the  cube  root  of  three-sevenths  ;  pile  one  irregu- 


"  The   Young  Idea:*  41 

lar  and  jagged  fraction  on  top  of  another,  and 
then  ask  them  to  divide  or  multiply  this  by  an 
arithmetical  monstrosity  as  hideous  and  impossi- 
ble as  itself." 

But  ignoring  the  children's  choice  in  the  mat-  / 
ter,  **All   this  sort   of  thing  in  the   teaching  of  \ 
young  children  is  either  useless  or  mischievous.    I 
It  is   bad  psychology,  bad  physiology,  and  bad   ) 
pedagogics.     Doubtless  this  practice  would  long^ 
since  have  been  reformed  but  for  the  inveterate 
superstition  of  the  New  England   mind  that  it 
is  well  the  child  should  be  worried  and  per- 
plexed in  education,  and   that  out  of  this  agita- 
tion   of   the   nerves   and    this    strain  upon    the 
mental  powers,  proceed  health  and  vigor.     I  de- 
nounce that  theory  in  its  extreme  state  as  a  relic 
of  barbarism    closely  akin  to  one  of   the    most 
savage  superstitions  of  primitive  manhood." 

Knowing  the  burdens  laid  by  life  upon 
all  the  sons  of  men,  knowing  the  struggles  and 
the  trials  awaiting  each  one  of  them,  shall  we 
make  even  their  preparation  for  bearing 
these  burdens  and  fighting  these  battles,  a 
heavy  and  a  grievous  thing  ?  To  torture  the 
child  now  because  most  likely  he  will  be  tor- 
tured in  the  future  !  The  educator  who  would 
advance  or  apply  such  a  theory  should  be  barred 
out  of  every  school-room  and  set  to  building 
fences  to  keep  cattle  out  of  corn.  Discipline  and 
development, — grand  words,  grand  things,  but 
yet  capable  of  misinterpretation  and  misapplica- 


42  *'  The    Young  Idea.'' 

tion.  Not  until  it  is  found  that  there  is  saving 
grace  in  chalk  or  slate-pencil,  that  man's  spirit- 
ual destiny  can  be  worked  out  in  perplexing 
problems  upon  the  blackboard,  will  there  be 
any  excuse  for  making  arithmetic  an  instrument 
of  torture. 

A  most  pleasing  discovery  has  just  been  made 
in  New  York.  Manual  training  for  a  long  time 
hung  about  the  thresholds  of  the  school-rooms 
of  the  metropolis.  It  modestly  hinted  at  its 
desire  to  be  allowed  to  enter.  It  grew  bolder 
and  declared  it  would  come  in  whether  wel- 
come or  no  ;  it  grew  bolder  yet,  to  the  ex- 
tent of  pounding  upon  the  doors  and  even 
threatening  the  destruction  of  the  building 
unless  admitted  immediately.  ''  To  maken  ver- 
tu  of  necessite,"  some  trouble  was  taken  to  pre- 
vent this  threat  from  being  carried  into  exe- 
cution^  by  finding  room  for  the  persistent  ap- 
plicant. This  was  done  by  combinations  and 
reductions  in  different  studies.  Behold  the 
happy  result,  both  for  the  former  occupants  of 
the  building  and  the  new-comer  at  last  installed 
among  them.  *'  We  have  found  out,"  states  the 
Superintendent,  ^*  that  the  work  in  arithmetic 
can  be  reduced  ZTiV^  V^"^  cent,  in  the  highest 
grades." 

Most  fortunate  finding  out  !  Will  it  not  be 
well  worth  the  while  of  other  superintendents 
to  explore  in  the  same  way  their  particular 
provinces,  to  the  end  that  similar  combinations, 


**  The   Young  Idea:'  43 

economies,  and  advantages  may  be  brought  to 
view?  Let  us  considerately  refrain  from  asking 
why  such  a  discovery  was  not  sooner  made. 
The  question  savors  too  much  of  the  spirit 
which  would  attack  a  fallen  foe. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

"the  verb  and  its  nomitive." 

"  Grammar  is  something  to  talk  good  and  is 
devided  into  digrams  on  the  blagboard.  I  cant 
never  learn  to  do  grammar." 

So  much  for  the  definition  of  this  particular 
kind  of  mental  pabulum  with  which  children 
have  been  fed  since  the  days — fifty  years  before 
Christ  was  born — when  Dionysius  Thrax  pro- 
duced the  first  Greek  grammar  for  Roman 
scholars.  His  name  would  not  be  loved  by  the 
youth  of  this  day,  even  were  it  known  to  them  ; 
neither  would  that  of  Plato,  who  first  made  it 
necessary  to  discriminate  between  noun  and 
verb  ;  or  Aristotle,  who  went  farther  and  in- 
creased the  list  of  "perplexing  parts  of  speech." 

"  A  noun  is  Something  that  is  a  noun  or  a 
name." 

"A  Proper  Noun  is  when  it  is  not  a  Common 
Noun." 

"A  pronoun  is  when  you  don't  want  to  say  a 


44  "  The    Young  Idea'' 

noun  and  so  you  say  a  pronoun.  It  is  when  it  is 
not  a  pronoun  but  a  noun." 

There  is  a  sort  of  mental  dizziness  engen- 
dered by  more  than  one  perusal  of  this  most 
lucid  elucidation.  ''A  confused  notion,"  says  a 
popular  writer  on  education,  "  is  worse  than  none, 
and  the  clever  boy,  under  some  systems  of  educa- 
tion, is  worse  than  the  dullard." 

*' An  adjectiv  tells  you  all  about  it."  Eureka  ! 
At  last  we  can  "  solve  the  riddle  of  the  painful 
earth  "  in  a  totally  une^tpected  manner.  *'  All 
about  it  !  "  What  comfort  for  the  curious  in 
that  short  and  simple  sentence  !  Truly,  there  is 
more  in  this  much-abused  science  than  at  first 
appears  ;  but  when  we  learn  from  the  next  paper 
that 

*'  An  adjective  is  an  objection  to  something," 
we  are  harassed  with  painful  doubts  as  to  the 
real  individuality  and  usefulness  of  this  partic- 
ular sort  of  word. 

**  An  adverb  is  some  sort  of  a  verb  put  onto 
another  kind  of  a  verb  to  tell  something  about 
it." 

''  Adverbible  phrase  is  when  you  have  a  sen- 
tence and  you  say  something  in  it  about  some- 
thing and  its  a  adverb  insted  of  a  noun  or  pro- 
non  or  verb  or  adgetive  than  its  adverble 
phrase." 

Like  '*  poor  Jo,"  this  boy  might  have  said 
with  truth,  "  I'm  a-gropin',  a-gropin*.' 

^'  The  difference  between  a  phrase  and  a  claus 


"  The    Young  Idea''  45 

IS  the  phrase  can  be  in  the  claus  and  sometimes 
it  is." 

One  can  hardly  help  speculating  as  to  where 
the  phrase  is  when  it  is  not  in  "  the  claus." 

"  A  conjunction  is  your  very  much  surprised 
at  something." 

Possibly  at  the  definition. 

"  A  interjection  is  throwing  words  in  a  sen- 
tence o  dear  is  interjection  because  you  can't 
pass  it  with  anything." 

Perhaps  Prof.  Bain  is  not  altogether  wrong 
when  he  says,  "The  difficulties  of  grammar  are 
the  difficulties  of  all  science  couched  in  tech- 
nical language.  When  the  age  of  grammar  is 
reached,  the  problem  of  teaching  it  solves  itself. 
It  is  a  practical  science  having  general  princi- 
ples which  become  rules."  Perhaps  "the  age  of 
grammar  "  thus  referred  to  is  synonymous  with 
"  the  age  of  discretion  "  which  often  comes  late 
in  life  and  sometimes  not  at  all  ;  at  any  rate  he 
also  says,  "  Experience  must  have  impressed 
teachers  with  the  futility  of  attempting  to  teach 
grammar  to  children.  It  is  the  worst  economy 
to  anticipate  the  mind's  natural  aptitude  for  any 
subject,  and  the  aptitude  for  grammar  does  not 
exist  at  eight  or  nine  years  of  age." 

The  "  plague  of  words  "  which  afflicts  so  many 
children  of  the  present  day,  is  nowhere  so  violent 
and  so  contagious  as  in  grammar  lessons,  where 
"  sound  lacking  sense  "  is  the  rule  rather  than 
the  exception. 


46  '^  The    Yoiuig  Idea.'' 

**  The  accidents  of  a  noun  is  what  happens 
to  it." 

^'  Pronouns  agree  with  gender  number  and 
numbers  in  the  passive  voice." 

'*  Adjectives  of  more  than  one  syllable  are 
repared  by  adxiing  some  more  syllables." 

''  A  pleonasm  is  used  for  a  substantive  in 
nomitive  independent." 

'*An  adverb  is  used  to  mortify  a  noun  and  is 
a  person  place  or  Thing." 

*'  Parsing  an  adverb  is  when  we  compare  it 
with  its  degrees." 

"  Sometimes  an  adverb  is  turned  into  a  noun 
and  then  it  becomes  a  noun  or  pronoun." 

*'  The  Subjunctive  mood  is  used  in  futurity 
when  contingency  and  conjuctions  or  doubt  are 
expressed  in  dependent  clauses." 

Truly,  as  says  Sylvia  to  Valentine  of  Verona, 
*'  A  fine  volley  of  words,  gentlemen,  and  quickly 
shot  off."  But  is  this  the  wisdom  that  is  "justi- 
fied of  her  children  "? 

^^  Grammar,"  says  another  writer  on  this  sub- 
ject, *'  is  coming  to  be  taught  more  in  accord- 
ance with  common  sense  and  the  needs  of  the 
pupil  ;  yet  a  large  number  still  cling  to  non- 
sensical jumbles  about  moods,  tenses,  and  gen- 
eral technicalities  to  the  exclusion  of  letter 
writing  and  other  forms  of  grammatical  compo- 
sition." 

That  much  of  the  '*  jumble  of  moods,  tenses, 
and  technicalities,"   if  not   nonsensical   to   the 


*'  The   Young  Idea!'  47 

mature  and  logical  mind,  is  more  or  less  so  to  the 
immature  and  undeveloped,  is  proved  by  the 
experience  of  every  teacher  who  takes  up  with 
young  children  the  formal  study  of  this  science. 

''Nouns  denoting  male  and  female  and  things 
without  sex  is  neuter/* 

''  The  cow  jumped  over  the  fence  is  a  transive 
nuter  verb  because  fence  isent  the  name  of  any 
thing  and  has  no  sex.'* 

""  A  masculine  noun  is  third  person  plural 
number  and  has  no  neuter  because  it  has  no 
gender  sex." 

"  The  degrees  of  comparison  is  I  study  you 
study  we  studys." 

"  He  speaks  lowly  lowly  is  a  ajectiv  of  how  he 
speaks  and  is  deprived  from  low  and  compard 
low  lowing  lowerest." 

*'  Voice  is  the  changing  of  our  voice.  We 
have  a  high  and  low  voice.  When  we  get  hoars 
we  haven't  much  of  a  voice." 

"  The  indicitive  mood  represents  the  verb  as 
acting  or  going  to.     I  shall  go." 

''  The  potential  mode  show  something  that 
may  can  or  must  be  done.     I  might  stay." 

*'  The  subjunctive  represents  the  verb  as  pos- 
sibly it  might  be  done.     If  I  can." 

''  The  infinitive  is  when  the  verb  is  going  to. 
To  dress  you  must  hurry." 

""  The  imperative  is  a  word  in  a  commanding 
form.     You  shall." 

Now  after  years  of  maundering  among  moods. 


48  "  The    Young  Idea!' 

modes,  and  manners,  oftentimes  with  the  happy 
results  just  stated,  the  announcement  is  made 
that  no  two  persons  agree  on  the  subjunctive 
mood  in  English,  and  as  for  the  potential,  like 
the  Chinese,  it  "  must  go." 

H.  C.  Penn  states  in  Education:  ''The  po- 
tential not  only  fails  to  dissipate  the  darkness 
that  envelops  our  native  tongue,  but  it  robes 
Latin  and  Greek  and  German  in  darkness  thrice 
dense.  Common  sense,  then,  requires  the  po- 
tential to  be  banished  from  the  grammar." 

The  child  who  gave  the  definition  of  this 
word,  "  Potential  very  powerful  but  not  pos- 
sible to  act,"  would  probably  consider  the  ban- 
ishment a  very  wise  thing  under  the  circum- 
tances. 

An  article  on  "Pedantry  in  Girls'  Schools  " 
by  Elizabeth  M.  Sewell,  an  English  teacher, 
was  lately  published  in  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
Among  other  admirable  things  she  says,  con- 
cerning this  special  subject  :  "  Is  it  the  best  pos- 
sible use  of  time,  so  inestimably  valuable  in 
these  early  years,  to  spend  it  in  learning  the  names 
which  grammarians  have  affixed  to  the  different 
parts  of  a  sentence,  and  determining  whether  co- 
ordinate sentences  are  of  the  copulative,  adver- 
sative, or  causative  class  ?  Educated  persons 
have  the  power  of  speaking  grammatically, 
though  they  may  never  have  been  called  upon  to 
write  ten  complex  sentences  with  an  adjective 
sentence  qualifying    the  subject,  and   ten  more 


«  The    Young  Idea,'*  49 

with  an  adjective  sentence  qualifying  the  object.    \ 
Will  not  young  people  as  they  grow  up,  if  they     \ 
have  been  perfectly  grounded  in  the  simple  ele-      \ 
mentary  parts  of  grammatical  knowledge,  study       ! 
these  distinctions  and  definitions  for  themselves,        \ 
and  learn  in  a  few  days  what  in  childhood  and        ) 
early    youth    it   would  have    taken   weeks    and      / 
months  to  acquire  ?  "  / 

*'  Is  it  wholly  through  the  dulness  of  boys* 
natures?"  asks  J.  W.  Hales,  another  English 
teacher,  *' that  they  do  not  love  the  Conjugation 
at  first  sight,  or  conceive  a  passionate  attachment 
for  the  Irregular  Verbs  ?  What  a  queer  thing 
their  nature  would  be  if  it  did  kindle  in  them 
either  flame!  At  all  events  it  does  not."  These 
last  words  carry  their  own  emphasis. 

**  Why  does  the  verb  dare  govern  a  dative,  as 
well  as  an  accusative  case  ? "  asked  a  conscien- 
tious teacher.  ^'  To  make  it  harder  for  us,"  was 
the  boy's  answer  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  many 
boys  see  only  that  same  "  tantalizing  exaspera- 
tion "  when  they  are  set  to  search  for  the  connec- 
tion between  grammatical  cause  and  effect. 

Comenius  began  the  reaction  against  ""  learn- 
ing masses  of  meaningless  rules" — meaningless 
so  far  as  they  prove  to  the  child  strange  tools  of 
which  he  knows  only  the  unfamiliar  names,  and 
not  the  use.  John  Locke  helped  along  the  re- 
form, as  did  also  Milton,  who  complained  that 
**  our  children  are  forced  to  stick  unreasonably 
in  these  grammatic  flats  and  shallows." 


50  "  The    Young  Idea.'' 

Roger  Ascham  inveighed  in  ^'  The  Scholemas- 
ter,"  against  "the  Rewles  that  are  so  Busilie 
taught  by  the  Master  and  so  Hardlie  learned  by 
the  Scholer  in  all  common  Scholes,"  saying, 
"  The  common  waie  to  read  the  Grammer  alone 
by  itself  is  tedious  for  the  Master,  hard  for  the 
Scholer,  colde  and  uncumfortable  for  them 
bothe."  He  adds,  with  some  pardonable  pride 
concerning  his  own  illustrious  pupil,  *'  Our 
moste  noble  Queen  Elizabeth  never  yet  tooke 
Greek  or  Latin  Grammer  in  her  Hande  after  the 
first  declininge  of  a  Noun  and  a  Verb." 

**  A  passive  transitive  verb  always  affirms  and 
relates  its  subject  as  he  brok  a  winder." 

*'  A  dejective  verb  is  when  it  wants  some  of  its 
parts,  it  is  auxiliary  and  impursenal." 

^'  A  participle  is  a  verb  of  expression  an  action 
in  state  it  is  an  adjective  and  has  a  passive  sim- 
plification." 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  natural  results  of  our 
persistent  use  of  polysyllabic  symbols  of 
thought  in  training  the  child,  to  whom  the 
sign  must  always  be  more  significant  than  the 
thing  signified.  Often  the  thought  of  which 
words  are  the  outward  and  visible  token  is  as 
obscure  to  the  child  as  is  the  geological  strata  of 
the  earth  over  which  he  rolls  his  marbles.  He 
is  overwhelmed,  smothered,  strangled,  paralyzed, 
and  buried  alive  under  "  words,  words,  words." 
Is  it  strange  that  the  victim  who,  like  Dr.  John- 
son  in   the  construction    of   his    dictionary,   is 


"  The    Young  Idea**  51 

^'  lost  in  lexicography,"  comes  to  believe  that  all 
books,  schools,  teachers,  education,  life  itself  is 
resolvable  into  *' words,  words,  words"?  With 
Sallust  we  may  say  *^  Enough  eloquence,  little 
wisdom,"  for  while  '^  nothing  is  so  cheap  as 
words  "  they  are  really  purchased  at  an  exorbi- 
tant price  when  they  cost  us  intellectual  life  and 
liberty. 

Southey's  '^Old  Kaspar  "  tells  his  grandchil- 
dren of  the  *^  Battle  of  Blenheim  "  with  much  in- 
terest and  detail  : 

"  *  But  what  good  came  of  it  at  last  ?' 
Quoth  little  Peterkin. 
*  Why,  that  I  cannot  tell,*  quoth  he, 
*  But  'twas  a  famous  victory/  " 

and  Kaspar's  family  is  not  the  only  one  in  which 
might  be  propounded  the  significant  question  of 
little  Peterkin.  After  skirmishes  with  nouns, 
verbs,  and  adjectives  ;  hand-to-hand  fights  with 
prepositions,  conjunctions,  and  "'  adverbible 
phrases";  bold  attacks,  more  or  less  successful, 
upon  the  Regulars  and  Irregulars  of  the  enemy's 
army  ;  assaults  upon  "  nomitiv  objectiv  and 
posesiv  cases,"  "  imperial  mood  "  and  ^^  parsed 
tense,"  and  courageous  cavalry  charges  through 
the  formidable  ranks  of  relatives  and  antece- 
dents, subjects  and  predicates,  constructions, 
conjugations,  modifications,  appositions,  appli- 
cations, and  exceptions,  the  conqueror  may  well 
look  with  some  perplexity  upon  the  mutilated 
grammatical  remains,  and  question  the  value  of 


52  "  The   Young  Idea  J* 

his  victory.  In  some  respects  it  is  as  unprofit- 
able and  as  unsatisfactory  as  that  of  the  military 
maneuver  of  the  King  of  France,  who,  with  forty 
thousand  men/'marched  up  a  hill  and  then 
marched  down  again,"  for,  says  Wm.  Hosea  Bal- 
lon, '^What  we  call  oiir  grammar  is  a  heteroge- 
neous conglomeration,  the  lau^uhing-stock  of  for- 
eign scholars,  and  the  despair  of  our  own," — and 
is  such  a  foeman  worthy  of  so  much  steel  ? 

"  A  sentence  is  words  on  the  blackboard,  with 
lines  all  through  it,  to  show  you  what  it  is  made 
of,"  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  "  new  method  "  in  the 
science  of  language,  whereby  an  innocent  collec- 
tion of  words  is  hung,  draw^n,  and  quartered, 
displayed  upon  the  blackboard,  "'  with  lines  all 
through  it,"  as  spare-ribs,  hams,  and  shoulders 
are  exhibited  on  the  iron  hooks  of  the  butcher's 
shop.  Diagramming,  as  this  modern  manipula- 
tion is  euphoniously  called,  is  not,/^rj^,  irra- 
tional or  ridiculous.  It  can  be  used  for  mental 
stimulus  as  profitably  as  the  beef  or  mutton  can 
be  used  for  physical  nourishment.  But  we  do 
not  give  beef  to  babies  without  danger  of  gastric 
disturbance,  nor  can  we  demand  diagrams  from 
young  brains  without  running  much  mental  risk. 

In  the  wise  words  of  the  preacher,  **  To  every 
thing  there  is  a  season,  and  a  time  to  every  purpose 
under  the  heaven  ;  a  time  to  break  down  and  a 
time  to  build  up,"  but  the  time  for  grammatical 
or  any  other  sort  of  diagramming  was  not  speci- 
fied by  the  preacher.      Probably  he  considered 


"  The   Young  Idear  53 

that  by  the  time  the  human  intellect  had 
reached  a  phase  of  development  in  which  such 
gymnastics  were  possible,  there  would  be  devel- 
oped along  with  it  enough  of  that  element  tech- 
nically called  common  sense  to  prevent  youthful 
brains  from  practising  upon  these  syntactical 
horizontal  and  cross-bars.  In  witnessing  the 
pitiable  contortions  of  these  dazed  young  athletes, 
we  are  reminded  of  a  statement  written  by  one  of 
them  concerning  the  mental  condition  of  our 
famous  Rip  Van  Winkle  after  awaking  from  his 
slumber  of  a  score  of  years.  "  He  was  so  be- 
wildered he  thought  he  had  taken  leave  of  his 
sentences." 

Says  Dr.  Charles  H.  Parkhurst  in  the  Forum  for 
March,  1888  :  "  The  way  for  a  boy  to  learn  to  talk 
correctly  is  to  talk  subject  to  correction,  not  to 
apply  himself  to  linguistic  anatomy,  surgery,  and 
dissection.  I  studied  grammar  in  the  ordinary 
way  about  three  weeks — just  long  enough  to  find 
out  what  a  genius  some  people  can  show  in  put- 
ting asunder  what  God  hath  joined  together.  It 
is  a  splendid  device  for  using  up  a  boy's  time  and 
souring  his  disposition,  but  it  will  not  keep  him 
out  of  the  grave  or  help  him  to  pay  rent  and 
butcher's  bills." 

"  No  child,"  says  Dr.  Wm.  A.  Hammond  of 
New  York,  ^*ever  learned  to  speak  good  English 
from  studying  grammar.  It  is  the  most  ingenious 
device  for  forcing  an  immature  brain  into  early 
decrepitude  that  the  cunning   of  man   has    yet 


54  "  The   Young  Idea'' 

devised.  The  only  reason  why  it  does  not  do 
more  harm  is  that  not  one  in  ten  of  the  pupils 
that  come  out  of  our  schools  know  anything  about 
it."  This  opinion  is  confirmed  by  Prof.  Hill  of 
Harvard  University.  '^  The  methods  of  the 
schools  are  radically  defective.  Every  year 
Harvard  graduates  a  certain  number  of  men 
whose  manuscript  would  disgrace  a  boy  of  twelve. 
Yet  the  college  cannot  be  blamed,  for  she  can 
hardly  be  expected  to  conduct  an  English  school 
for  adults." 

Says  Mr.  Wm.  E.  Mead,  in  the  Academy:  "  If 
the  time  now  spent  on  English  grammar  in  gram- 
mar schools  could  be  reduced  four-fifths,  and 
the  time  spent  on  some  great  English  classic 
read  in  illustration  of  the  few  grammatical  prin- 
ciples worth  knowing,  it  would  be  a  reform  in  the 
right  direction.  Boys  who  leave  school  at  the 
age  of  twelve  are  far  more  likely  to  pick  up 
grammar  from  literature  than  they  are  to  pick  up 
literature  from  grammar." 

In  1769  James  Hamilton,  an  English  mer- 
chant, took  lessons  in  German  on  condition  that 
he  should  not  be  ^'bothered  "  with  the  grammar. 
He  read  with  his  teacher  a  book  of  anecdotes, 
translating  it  word  for  word.  After  twelve 
lessons  he  could  read  an  easy  German  book. 
In  1815  he  came  to  New  York,  published  a 
pamphlet  upon  his  methods,  and  undertook  to 
teach  adults  in  fifteen  lessons  to  translate  St. 
John's  Gospel  from   French  into   English,  but 


"  The   Young  Idea''  55 

found  ten  lessons  amply  sufficient.  He  also 
claimed  to  be  able  to  give  boys  as  much  knowl- 
edge of  Latin  in  six  months  as  they  usually  learn 
in  six  years. 

Such  violent  reaction  from  the  old  cut  and 
dried  methods  that  had  grown  so  tedious  and 
distasteful  to  the  generations,  could  not  fail 
to  produce  a  profound  impression,  especially 
when  the  new  style  of  instruction  proved  prac- 
tically successful.  Grammar,  like  money, 
medicine,  and  machinery,  is  not  an  end  but 
a  means.  It  is  not  likely  to  be  studied  for  its 
own  sake  when  this  truth  becomes  generally 
recognized ;  but  it  has  taken  a  long  time  to 
even  partially  convince  the  world  that  language 
is  a  living  organism  for  the  use  and  behoof 
of  human  beings  ;  not  an  array  of  skeletons 
to  be  kept  in  orderly  condition  in  a  musty 
cabinet,  or  a  mass  of  dead  flowers  to  be  properly 
pressed  and  preserved  between  the  leaves  of  a 
book.  Hamilton's  innovation  was  the  fore- 
runner of  our  present  Natural  Method, the  Ber- 
litz, and  Meisterschaft  methods,  which  within 
a  few  years  have  revolutionized  the  learning  of 
languages,  and,  as  advertisers  state  concerning 
the  price  of  desirable  articles,  '*  brought  them 
within  the  reach  of  all." 

But  even  in  these  improved  circumstances  we 
must  take  heed  to  our  ways,  for  our  linguistic 
locomotives  cannot — any  more  than  our  literal 
ones — run  without  suitable  rails  and  road-beds, 


56  "  The    Young  Idea." 

In  the  increased  speed  and  comfort  of  our  poly- 
glot palace  cars,  we  are  not  to  consider  ourselves 
independent  of  the  car  tracks,  though  it  is  no 
longer  necessary  to  keep  our  eyes  and  our 
thoughts  constantly  fixed  upon  them. 

Says  Francis  W.  Lewis  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Normal  School  :  "  If  an  English  education  could 
be  made  to  include  by  means  of  its  language 
course  more  real  thought  discrimination,  we 
should  not  have  to  depend  so  much  upon 
classically  trained  men  for  our  thinking."  Per- 
haps too,  with  some  of  old  Roger  Ascham's 
"  Plaine  construinge,  diligent  parsinge,  dailie 
translatinge,  cheerfull  admonishinge,  heedfull 
amendinge,"  we  might  have  a  little  grace  as  well 
as  grammar  in  the  original  sentences  of  some 
of  our  school  children. 

""  The  bells  tolled  merrily  for  a  rich  mil- 
lionaire." 

^*  Cora  Brown  was  fortunately  the  possessor 
of  a  birthday,  for  she  was  the  daughter  of  rich 
friends." 

*'  When  Mr.  Johnson  took  to  love  of  drink  so 
much  it  made  his  family  on  comfortable." 

''  The  only  heat  they  had  was  from  the  end 
of  a  candle  a  poor  woman  had  given  them  and 
it  was  rather  cold." 

"  Two  carriages  were  strolling  at  great  speed 
while  the  snow  was  falling  fastly." 

^*  As  she  entered  the  room  a  cold  damp  smell 
met  her  sight.  With  this  she  burst  down  sob- 
bing like  a  child." 


*'  The    Young  Idea^  57 

"  She  forgot  the  Lord  and  all  his  blessings  and 
after  that  she  went  and  got  married." 

''  The  minister's  wife  had  nine  small  children 
each  one  of  which  was  one  year  younger  than 
the  other.  Though  poor  she  was  a  diligent 
woman,"  after  all  of  which  we  cannot  possibly 
be  surprised  to  read  that  '*  she  fell  down  scatter- 
ing her  senses  in  all  directions." 


CHAPTER  V. 

^^THE    CIRCUS    OF    THE    EARTH." 

**  JoGRAPHY  is  a  'scription  of  the  circus  of  the 
earth." 

Half-a-dozen  hands  raised  to  suggest  a  cor- 
rection. The  teacher  nods  to  one  of  the  eager 
faces. 

^' You  may  tell  us,  Johnnie." 

**  Jogfy  is  'scription  of  the  suffis  of  the  earth." 

The  "  committee-man  "  smiles  encouragingly 
upon  the  glib  reciter. 

^*  What  do  you  mean  by  *  description  *  ?  "  he 
blandly  asks. 

*'  A  'scription  is  tellin'  you  about  it." 

*^  Very  good.  What  is  geography  a  descrip- 
jtion  of  ? " 

"  'Scription  of  the  earth." 

**'What  is  the  earth  ?" 


V 


58  ''  The    Yomig  Idea:* 

Silence.     Blank  stare  from  the  class. 

*'  You  know,  of  course,  what  the  earth  is  ?  *' 

One  hand  raised  cautiously,  followed  by 

*'  Europe,  Asia,  Africa." 

^'  Have  you  ever  seen  the  earth,  boys  ?  " 

Class  in  chorus,  "No,  sir,"  with  a  feeble  tenor 
solo  somewhere,  "Yes,  sir,  on  the  map." 

One  of  our  daily  papers  narrates  the  following  : 

"Mamma,"  inquired  little  Waldo  Bunker  of 
Boston,  who  is  spending  the  winter  in  Florida, 
"  What  is  that  body  of  water  ! " 

"  The  Atlantic  ocean,  my  dear." 

*'  The  Atlantic  ocean !  "  exclaimed  little 
Waldo  in  amazement.  "  Why,  I  thought  the 
Atlantic  ocean  was  near  Boston." 

Prof.  Geikie  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly 
remarks  :  "  Every  question  in  geography  should 
be  one  which  requires  for  its  answer  that  the 
children  have  actually  seen  something  with 
their  own  eyes  and  taken  note  of  it."  Little 
Waldo  had  evidently  done  both  of  these  things, 
and  yet  was  "all  at  sea"  on  the  bosom  of  the 
broad  Atlantic. 

The  Christian  Union  reports  the  case  of  a 
child  in  a  western  prairie  country  who  was 
studying  geography  and  asked  her  teacher  if  the 
Alps  and  Andes  were  as  high  as  the  steeple  of 
the  Congregational  church. 

Says  Horace  Mann,  "  In  geography  we  put  a 
quarto-sized  map,  or  a  globe  no  larger  than  a 
goose-egg,  into  a  child's  hand  and  invite  him  to 


"  The    Young  Idea''  59 

spread  out  his  mind  over  continuous  oceans  and 
archipelagoes  at  once.  This  does  not  expand 
the  mind,  but  belittles  the  object  to  the  nutshell 
capacity  of  the  mind." 

This  invitation  to  ^^  spread  out  the  mind  "  is 
courteously  accepted,  and  the  mind  proceeds  to 
spread  in  the  following  manner  upon  a  slate  pro- 
vided for  the  purpose : 

''  A  arkipelago  is  made  up  off  a  great  lot  of 
little  islands  all  round  in  the  ocean." 

*'  An  archipelago  is  when  there  is  a  good 
many  islands.  Coney  island  isent  an  archi- 
pelago." 

"  An  archpelago  is  something  that  casts  up 
fire  and  water  Vesuvius." 

"'  That  a  youth  of  ten  should  conceive  the 
plains  of  India  with  their  vertical  sun,  peculiar 
vegetation,  strange  animals,  and  dusky  popula- 
tion, is  not  to  be  supposed,"  says  Prof.  Bain  in 
his  *'  Education  as  a  Science." 

There  are  other  countries  also  which  the  youth- 
ful mind  can  not  comprehend. 

''  Part  of  Australia  is  vague,"  asserts  one,  with- 
out danger  of  contradiction. 

'' Australeya  ust  to  be  used  by  the  English  to 
keep  men  on  that  was  not  bad  enough  to  be 
killed.  Some  farms  would  raise  as  much  as  five 
hundred  thousand.  The  English  long  ago  ust 
to  send  their  prisoners  there  when  they  did  any- 
thing not  worth  hanging." 

'^  Australia  is  a  very  large  country  in  Europe 


6o  ^'  The    Young  Ideay 

and  has  all  its  bad  men  and  they  have  found  a 
great  many  gold  and  diamonds  there  and  Sid- 
ney is  one  of  the  chief  countries  in  it  which  is  in 
New  South  Wales." 

Sometimes  the  mind  does  not  spread  quite  far 
enough,  as  in  the  case  of  the  little  Nantucket 
girl  who  asserted  that  ^'  California  is  west  of  Off 
Island,"  a  certain  body  of  land  surrounded  by 
water,quite  near  her  own  home.  Possibly  the 
answer  might  have  been  accepted  if  she  had 
only  specified  how  far  west. 

The  African  continent  has  for  a  long  time 
piqued  our  curiosity,  and  the  source  of  its 
largest  river  has  been  persistently  searched  for  ; 
yet  somehow  we  fail  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
statements  intended  to  throw  light  on  these 
hidden  things  : 

*'  The  interior  of  Africa  is  principally  used  for 
purposes  of  exploration." 

"  Africa  has  no  interior  and  you  can't  ex- 
plore it." 

"  The  Nile  is  in  New  York  a  country  of 
Africa." 

In  some  other  statements  we  receive  the  full 
value  of  *'  the  sign,"  yet  hardly  grasp  '*  the 
thing  signified." 

**  The  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  rises  in  Itaska 
Lake  and  empties  into  Mississippi." 

*'  San  Francisco  is  a  river  in  Brazil." 

^'  The  capital  of  Kentucky  is  Frankfort  on 
the  Maine." 


"  The   Young  Idea!'  6i 

"  Alexandria  is  the  capitol  of  Russia." 
Another  feature  of  this  country  is  that 
**  The   serfs   of   Russia   is   little   animals   all 

white  except  the  tips  of  their  tails  which  is  black." 
"  The  Catskill  mountains  are  also  in  Russia." 
*^  London  is  the  largest  city  of  the    United 

States  or  Russia  or  France." 

If  that  particular  pupil  should  "guess  again" 

he  might  hit  it. 

One   might   well  find  himself  in   "Egyptian 

darkness  "  if 

"  Egypt  is  in  Syria,"  and 

"  Syria  is  a  kind  of  turpentine." 

Some  persons  may  be  surprised  to  find  that 

"  The  greater  antills  are  sugar,  oranges,  coffee 

and  indigo." 

"  An  alligator  is  the  largest  insect  in   North 

America." 

*'  Leopards,    tigers     and     elephants     inhabit 

North  America." 

"The  camel  grows  in  Greenland." 
"  There  is  snakes  all  over  the  frigid  zone." 
"  Bears  are  the  growth  of  tropical  countries." 
"  The  tropics  produce  a  great  many  kinds  of 

wild  beast  and  figs." 

Some  geographical  statements  tend  to  broaden 

our  views.     For  instance, 

"  The   climate  of  a  country  is  trading  with 

other  countries." 

"  Domestic    commerce    is    fishing.      Foreign 

commerce  is  fishing  with  a  pole." 


62  "  The   Young  I  dear 

"  The  boundaries  of  a  country  is  things  that 
go  all  round  it." 

'^  When  we  bound  a  country  we  tell  where  all 
the  places  are  near  it." 

^'  Mountains  is  when  the  ground  is  all  piled 
up  high." 

"  Volcanoes  are  things  you  fire  off  Forth  of 
July." 

Horace  Mann  tells  of  a  text-book  of  geogra- 
phy published  in  Massachusetts,  claiming  in  its 
preface  "  special  adaptation  to  children  "  on  the 
second  page  of  which  occurred  this  paragraph, 

*'  Zenith  and   Nadir — two  Arabic  words  im>;^ 
porting  their  own  significance."  j 

This  will  do  to  accompany  a  geography  lesson 
which  Rousseau  tells  of  reading,  beginning, 

*'  What  is  the  world  ?  " 

"  A  pasteboard  globe,"  and  he  further  adds, 
*'  When  you  are  ready  to  teach  this  child  geogra- 
phy, you  get  together  your  globes  and  your 
maps,  and  what  machines  they  are  !  Why, 
instead  of  using  all  these  representations,  do 
you  not  begin  by  showing  him  the  object  itself 
so  as  to  let  him  know  what  you  are  talking  of  ? 
I  venture  to  say  that  after  two  years  of  globes 
and  cosmography,  no  child  of  ten,  by  any  rules 
they  give  him,  could  find  his  way  from  Paris  to 
St.  Denis.  And  yet  these  are  the  knowing 
creatures  who  can  tell  you  where  Pekin,  Ispa- 
han, Teheran  and  all  the  countries  of  the 
world  are  !  ** 


^'  The    Young  Idea'*  (i'^ 

They  can  tell  more  than  that,  too,  "  just  as 
easy  as  not." 

*'  The  time  is  never  alike  all  over  the 
earth." 

^*  Valleys  exist  to  hold  up  fissures  in  the  earth's 
surface." 

"  The  whole  world  has  a  structure  which  per- 
vades North  America." 

''  The  earth  is  very  eccentric.  It  has  the  most 
popular  zone  of  the  globe." 

"  All  globes  have  imaginary  lines  and  zones 
our  globe  has  several  of  these." 

"  Tropical  fruits  are  found  all  spread  out 
where  they  grow  in  Cancer  and  Crapricon."  ,^ 

This  sounds  very  much  like  a  sentence  printed  / 
in  an  old  geography  still  in  existence,  "  Albany  \ 
has  four  hundred  inhabitants  all  standing  with 
their  gable  ends  to  the  street."  ^ 

Bain  truly  calls  mathematical  geography  "  the 
greatest  task  of  the  purely  conceptive  power," 
adding  that  ^*  it  requires  very  delicate  manipula- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  teacher."  But  the  greatest 
skill  as  well  as  delicacy  in  handling  the  Tropic 
of  Cancer,  the  North  Pole,  and  a  degree  of  longi- 
tude, will  not  prevent,  in  minds  lacking  this 
power  of  conception,  such  statements  as  ^ 

"  The  tropic  of  Cancer  is  a  very  hopeless  dis-N. 
ease";  indeed  it  is  hopeless — when  it  reaches/^ 
this  stage.  ^ 

^*  The  Tropic  of  Cancer  is  something  going 
round  the  earth  to   show  you  where  you  are  "; 


64  .     "  The   Young  I  dear 

this  might  be  useful  on  a  dark  night  or  in  a 
London  fog. 

*'  The  Tropic  of  Cancer  is  south  of  an  imagin- 
ary line  drawn  on  the  map  and  is  reckoned  from 
Greenland  ";  even  a  change  in  the  syllable  of  the 
last  word  might  leave  much  to  be  desired  in  the 
definition. 

"  Latitude  and  longitude  is  something  depend- 
ent on  the  air";  truly  this  is  giving  to  an  **  airy 
nothing  "  a  name  if  not  '*a  local  habitation." 

All  that  is  needed  to  complete  this  profitable 
course  of  study  is  for  the  pupils  to  succeed  in 
carrying  out  the  command  of  a  trustee, — 

**  Now,  children,  take  your  slates  and  draw  two 
imaginary  lines  bisecting  each  other  at  an  obtuse 
triangle."  "^ 

Any  human  being  who  would  require  from  lit- 
tle children  knowledge  of  the  artificial  divisions 
of  mathematical  geography  with  their  unintelli- 
gible terms,  should  be  served  as  sinners  are  dis- 
posed of  in  a  certain  Italian  city,  if  the  following 
statement  is  intended  to  be  believed  : 

*'  The  streets  of  Venice  is  water  and  they  have 
boats  to  sale  in  and  if  a  man  breaks  the  rules 
they  take  him  out  on  the  bridge  and  cut  off  his 
head  or  drown  him."  In  some  cases  it  might  be 
well  to  do  both  in  order  *^to  make  assurance 
double  sure"  that  he  would  no  longer  torture 
the  little  ones. 

In  view  of  the  stupid  ways  in  which  geography 
is  taught  and  studied — not  learned — it  is  refresh- 


"  The   Young  Idea'*  65 

ing  to  read  what  the  study  might  be  made  as  set 
forth  by  the  eloquent  Herder  : 

*'  I  know  few  sciences  so  rich  in  necessary 
and  pleasant  facts.  I  wonder  how  any  noble, 
well-educated  youth  in  the  best  years  of  his  life 
should  not  love  the  science  before  all  others. 
A  knowledge  of  physical  geography  is  as  impor- 
tant as  it  is  easily  and  pleasantly  entertaining.  It 
must  be  the  most  pleasing  picture,  full  of  art, 
plans,  change.  It  travels  through  the  earth, 
finds  out  about  people,  countries,  and  customs. 
If  all  these  are  made  vivid,  then  it  must  be  a 
stupid  monster  who  by  that  means  does  not  re- 
ceive into  his  head  and  into  his  heart  a  great  and 
refined  perception."  He  thinks  that  there  are 
many  **  short-sighted  barbarians  "  who  if  they 
had  only  learned  geography  and  history  better  in 
their  youth  "  would  not  make  the  narrow  bands 
of  their  heads  a  measure  of  the  world,  and  the 
customs  of  their  corner  the  rule  and  guide  of  all 
times,  climates,  and  people." 

There  is  a  little  flavor  of  this  narrowness  in 
the  pupil's  statement, 

"  The  rapid  growth  of  New  York  City  as  a 
commercial  center  can  be  accounted  for  by  the 
fact  that  Castle  Garden  is  located  there." 

Prof.  Geikie  says,  *'  Geography  serves  as  com- 
mon ground  on  which  the  claims  of  literature, 
history,  and  science  may  be  reconciled."  Yet  it 
is  doubtful  if  he  would  endorse  the  statement  of 
an  amateur  artist  who  wrote  in  reference  to  his 


(>^  "  The   Young  I  dear 

work — a  map  of  Ireland, — ''  I  had  not  room  to 
put  down  the  island  on  one  side  which  Robinson 
Crusoe  discovered  and  wrote  his  story  books  a 
good  many  centuries  ago."  "\ 

Probably  there  is  no  study  which  can  serve  as  *\ 
well  as  geography  to  develop  a  sense  of  proportion  ) 
and  relation  which  can  be  carried  into  every  line 
of  life.  In  this  respect  it  ranks  with  astronomy. 
Yet  with  all  the  array  of  maps  which  the  child 
looks  at  with  wide-open  but  uncomprehending 
eyes,  he  sometimes  receives  so  little  idea  of  the 
facts  they  are  intended  to  show  that  he  writes, 

^'  The  United  States  is  most  as  big  as  En- 
gland." 

That  England  with  Wales  is  not  larger  than 
the  State  of  Georgia  ;  that  with  the  addition  of 
South  Carolina,  the  two  States  will  represent 
more  area  than  England,  Wales  and  Scotland 
combined, — how  many  pupils  in  geography  learn 
anything  of  such  proportions  as  these  ?  An 
interesting  experiment  in  this  matter  was  lately 
tried  in  a  grammar-school  class,  every  member  of 
which  had  made  a  creditable  showing  in  a  difficult 
written  examination.  Several  of  them  believed 
England  to  be  "  the  largest  country  in  the 
world,"  because  they  had  ^*  studied  the  most 
about  it,"  and  ^'  because  it  had  so  many  kings 
and  queens  more  than  any  other  country  ever 
had,"  and  *'  because  London  was  there,"  and 
*'  because  it  was,"  as  a  little  homesick  Britisher 
wrote   on   his  slate,    '^  so  orful  far  off."      The 


''  The    Young  Idea:'  67 

prevailing  idea  seemed  to  be  that  France 
ranked  next  in  size — perhaps  because  of  kings, 
queens,  or  Paris — and  that  America  stood  third 
on  the  list. 

*^  For  to-morrow's  lesson   you  may  get  from    \ 
there  to  there,"  says  the  teacher,  and  the  child-       ) 
ren*'get"it.    The  lesson  is  *' perfect" — *' nobody     / 
missed  a  single  word."     Sure  enough,  not  a  word, 
but  how  about  the  ideas  which   the  words  are 
supposed  to  convey  ?     These  trustful  and  obe- 
dient   children    make    even    less  opposition    to 
this   sort  of  provender  than  did  the  countryman 
who  went  for  the  first  time  into  a  city  restaur- 
ant.    After   half  an    hour's    diligent  labor  at  a 
table,  he  meekly   beckoned  to  the   head-waiter 
who   at    once   approached    him,  and    to  whom, 
holding  up  the  bill  of  fare,  he  thus  addresse^ 
himself,  '*  Mister,  I've  et  from  thar  to  thar,  an*  \ 
ef  it  don't  make  no  difference  to  you,  I'd  like  to  / 
skip  from  thar  to  thar."     Possibly  the  children 
would  like  to  skip  occasionally,  though  they  re- 
frain from   mentioning  the   fact,   perhaps   from 
fear  that  it  may  make  a  difference  to  their  head- 
waiter.     And  as  an  English   teacher  says,   *'  We 
succeed  in  making  our  chickens  eat,  and  if  some 
of  them  can  be   brought  to  wax   fat  mentally, 
shall  we  not  justify  our  wisdom  ?"     But  there  is 
a  suggestion  of  abnormal  growth  in 

"  Mt.  Everest  is  the  highest  mountain  known, 
its  latitude  being  most  30  feet." 

"  Vesuvius  is  a  highly  cultivated  plain  rising 
on  the  shores  of  Naples." 


68  <^  The   Young  Idear 

"  The  temperate  zone  has  a  very  mean  tern* 
perature." 

"  New  Zealand  is  a  country  of  the  caniballs, 
where  they  eat  the  Missunries  they  send  there." 

*'  Siberia  is  where  the  Czar  of  Russia  goes  to 
stay  in  his  snow  palace  in  Petersburg." 

"  Cape  Horn  is  near  the  end  of  Africa  on  the 
way  to  California." 

**  The  Ismus  of  Panama  is  situated  in  a 
canal." 

"  The  three  longest  rivers  are  Mississippi, 
Maine,  and  London." 

'^  Cortes  is  not  on  the  map  of  Mexico," — and 
in  some  surprising  statements  in  seismography: 

*' Earthquakes  are  bursts  of  heat." 

**  Erthquakes  make  sometimes  a  some  slite 
motion  of  the  earth,"  with  the  sadly  significant 
and  somewhat  euphemistic  statement, 

"  Earthquakes  are  never  satisfactory." 

The  following  is  a  report  of  a  representative 
geography  lesson  in  an  English  school  : 

'^ '  We  will  now  take  the  coast  line  of  South 
America  from  Cape  Corrientes  southward.  The 
name  of  the  village  south  of  Corrientes  ? ' 

"  '  Loberia.' 

"  '  Next  feature  ? ' 

"  *  Asuncion  Point.* 

'''  Next  ? ' 

"  '  Bahia  Blanca.* 

"  '  Next  ? ' 

"  *  Bermeja  Head.' 


'^  The    You  fig  Ideay  69 

"  *  No,  Brown,  you  have  omitted  two  names  of 
interest.     What  is  the  omission,  Robinson  ? ' 

"  '  Point  Rasa.' 

''  '  Precisely.  I  fear  you  are  a  little  weak  in 
geography.  Brown.     Go  on.' 

^'  '  Norte  Point,  San  Josef  Peninsula,  Delgada 
Point,  Nuevo  Gulf.' 

"Wearisome  hours  were  spent  in  committing 
huge  lists  of  names  to  memory  ;  the  stuff  hung 
about  in  their  minds  with  stupefying  effect  for  a 
month  or  so  ;  then  it  all  faded  away  and  only  a 
memory  of  sickening  frivolity  remained.  What 
with  length  of  rivers,  heights  of  mountains, 
depths  of  oceans,  and  such  like,  it  is  probable 
that  each  pupil  wasted  three  months  of  his  price- 
less two  years.  The  girls  learned  geography 
until  they  could  draw  a  map  of  Jamaica,  or 
Kamschatka,  or  Vancouver  Island  with  perfect 
ease,  and  they  thus  gained  a  sort  of  useful 
knowledge  which  they  easily  forgot  within  three 
months.  They  could  tell  you  the  height  of 
Mount  Dwalaghiri  to  a  foot,  but  of  all  things 
gracious  and  lovely  they  were  left  as  ignorant 
as  Bechuanas." 


70  "  The    Young  Idea'' 

CHAPTER  VL 

"  SEEING    INTO    THINGS.**  ^# 

"  History  is  seeing  into  things." 

"  Without  the  uses  of  History  everything  goes 
to  the  bottom." 

**  Ambition  is  the  very  element  of  History  ac- 
cording how  it  be  used." 

**  And  then  trace  back  when  antiquity  was 
buried  in  the  dark  recesses  of  oblivion  swaying 
for  a  ray  of  light  to  grapple  a  mystery  which  if 
to  be  recorded  upon  the  pages  of  History  would 
illuminate  the  whole  industrial  world." 

**  History  is  a  most  interesting  study  when 
you  know  something  about  it." 

It  is  interesting,  for  example,  to  learn  that 

"  Mohammed  was  born  in  the  sacred  city  of 
Mecca,  in  the  year  570.  He  did  not  go  out  into 
Public  life  until  he  was  about  '40  years  of  age 
he  had  always  been  a  rich  merchant  he  could 
neither  read  nor  write  after  his  fortyeth  birth- 
day he  became  a  christian  and  went  to  the  old 
communion  of  God.  He  fled  July  15,  622  and 
died  in  632  A.D.  Hegira  was  the  wife  of  Mo- 
hammed," though  when  we  also  learn  that 

^'  The  Hegira  was  the  flight  of  the  Israelites 
into  Egypt,"  the  conflicting  statements  give  us  a 
considerable  sense  of  bewilderment,  which  is 
not  diminished  by  the  third  assertion, 


"  The   Young  Idea.''  71 

^'  The  Hegira  was  when  Peter  the  hermit  tried 
to  get  the  Crusades  from  the  holy  Land," 

Not  every  one  cares  about  the  particular  his- 
torical event  so  variously  described,  but  the  com- 
ments of  the  Massachusetts  teacher  in  whose 
class  the  story  of  Mohammed  originated  are  cer- 
tainly worthy  of  a  moment's  attention  : 

"  If  reform  is  your  aim,  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  fact  of  these  blunders  being  made  by  high- 
school  pupils  who  in  one  or  two  years,  some- 
times in  a  few  months,  graduate  and  enter 
college,  might  be  emphasized.  The  reasons  for 
such  displays  I  find  is  the  fact  that  pupils 
enter  the  high  school  without  knowing  how  to 
read." 

If  these  last  fiwQ  words  were  italicized,  the 
remark  would  be  in  order,  *'  The  italics  are 
ours,"  but,  to  the  thoughtful  reader,  neither 
italics  nor  comments  are  necessary.  We  are, 
however,  reminded  of  a  similar  statement  by  one 
of  our  most  popular  educators:  ^^  Pupils  often 
appear  dull  in  grammar,  geography,  and  history 
merely  because  they  are  poor  readers.  A  child 
is  not  qualified  to  use  any  text-book  until  he  is 
able  to  read  with  facility,  as  we  are  accustomed 
to  speak,  in  groups  of  words." 

Apropos  of  Peter  and  his  Holy  Wars,  it  will 
doubtless  seem  incredible — to  anybody  but  a 
teacher — that  some  professional  humorist  did  not 
perpetrate  the  following  : 

"  The  Crusaders  were  women  who  did  not  want 


72  ''  The    Young  I  dear 

men  to   get  drunk.     My  Ant  Ann  was  a  Cru- 
sader in  Ohio." 

"  The  Crusaders  said  that  for  nearly  two 
centuries  they  were  holy  wars  and  did  great 
good  in  the  barbarous  and  beneficial  change  to 
society." 

"  These  military  expeditions  were  undertaken 
to  rescue  the  tomb  of  Mohammed  from  the 
christians  who  were  buried  in  Palestine.'' 

^^  Peter  the  Hermit  wanted  to  get  the  holy 
sepulcler  out  of  the  hands  of  the  people  and 
sovereigns  of  Europe." 

^*  Peter  the   Third  was  a  painful   pilgrimage    ' 
traveling  all  round   noted  for  his  monkey  en-     . 
thusiasm."     This  last  may  possibly  have  emana-^ 
ted  from  the  brain  that  produced  the  definition, 
already  quoted,  **  Monasteries,  a  place  for  mon-j;>^ 
sters."  "^ 

Evidently  our  same  poor  Peter  has  in  some  way 
become  mysteriously  identified  with  an  English 
institution  of  a  hundred  years  later: 

**  Magna  Charta  was  a  great  man,  and  he  was 
called  Magna  Charta  because  he  used  to  go 
about  preaching." 

Next  we  are  illuminated  concerning  the  decree 
which  plunged  a  whole  nation  into  darkness: 

"  The  feudal  system  was  a  law  which  was  that 
everybody  should  have  their  lights  out  by  eight 
o'clock  in  the  evening." 

The  same  country  had  another  peculiar  insti- 
tution: 


^'  The    Young  Idea.''  73 

''  Doomsday  Book  was  a  law  that  if  any  poor 
man  should  kill  a  deer  they  should  have  his  eyes 
put  out." 

"'  The  Wars  of  the  Roses  was  between  the 
Lombards  who  had  the  white  rose,  and  the  York 
who  had  the  red  rose.  Result,  The  house  of 
York  was  assassed."  "Assassed"!  The  most 
daring  imagination  falters  in  its  attempt  to  con- 
ceive what  fate  befell  that  unfortunate  house- 
hold. 

To  return  again  to  the  beginning  of  the 
calamity:  "  It  was  in  the  Reign  of  Richard  II. 
Margaret  the  sister  of  the  Queen  was  blind  and 
her  lover  came  to  see  her  and  he  asked  for  a 
white  rose  and  she  kept  picking  red  ones  and  the 
result  was  getting  a  flower  for  England." 

Now  we  know  all  about  it,  notwithstanding  the 
words  of  Rousseau  on  the  subject  of  history. 
"  Do  you  imagine,"  he  says,  *'  that  the  true 
understanding  of  events  can  be  separated  from 
that  of  their  causes  and  effects,  and  that  the 
historic  and  the  moral  are  so  far  asunder  that 
the  one  can  be  understood  without  the  other  ? 
If  you  intend  to  estimate  actions  by  their  moral 
relations,  try  to  make  your  pupils  understand 
these  relations,  and  you  will  discover  whether 
history  is  adapted  to  their  years." 

*'  The  men  who  have  striven  to  get  at  the 
spirit  of  history,  have  found  it  by  studying  the 
individual,"  decides  Prof.  Root  of  Hamilton 
College,     Probably  it  was  one  of  the  young  men 


74  "  The    Young  Idea,** 

striving  to  that  end — too  young,  apparently,  to 
strive  successfully, — who  discovered  that 

^'  Joan  of  Arc  was  rather  pious  and  very  gen- 
teel." 

^'Cromwell  owed  his  elevation  to  his  ascent  to 
greatness,  and  because  he  was  often  in  the  senate 
and  in  the  field  of  domestic  retirement." 

Another  one  discovers  from  this  study  of  the 
individual  that 

"  Zenophon  died  1865  A.D." 

*'  Ceasar  was  144  years  old." 

"Franklin  and  Ceasar  were  Frenchmen." 

"  Napoleon  w^as  a  Russian  Czar." 

"  Napoleon  was  the  first  king  of  France." 

"  Napoleon  fought  at  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill." 

*'  Xerxes  was  the  son  of  Darius  king  of  Eng- 
land," and 

"  Maria  Antoinette  was  daughter  of  William 
the  Conqueror  and  wife  of  Napoleon,"  though 
this  last  goes  beyond  the  individual  and  attempts 
to  settle  three  monarchs  in  one  sentence. 

It  is  evident  that  if  Prof.  Root  is  right,  some- 
body or  something  must  be  wrong.  Horace 
Walpole  would  consider  that  the  subject  itself 
was  to  blame.  "  Anything  but  history,"  he 
cried,  "  for  history  must  be  all  false  !  "  Yet  so 
far  as  known  he  had  never  read  on  any  scholar's 
examination  paper  what  younger  eyes  have  been 
privileged  to  see. 

"  The  Phonecians  are  natives  of  Venice." 


*'  The   Yotmg  Idear  75 

"  The  Spartans  settled  England." 

*'  The  Romans,  after  conquering  England, 
taught  the  Brittons  to  make  railroads." 

**  The  commons  chose  aldermen,  and  the  as- 
sembly opened  at  Versailes." 

"  1 216  ships  brought  eleven  settlers  to  new 
England." 

**  Wen  the  colonis  turned  their  attention  to  , 
tobaco  they  experiensed  a  strok  of  prosperity  / 
which  nearly  proved  fatal  to  the  destruction  of  ) 
the  settlement." 

"  Valley  Forge  was  one  of  the  most  blood- 
shed battles  of  the  revolution  killing  the  in- 
habitants." 

"  Flour  and  bacon  were  two  provisions  of  theA 
Ordinance  of  1787." 

Herbert  Spencer  does  not  assert  the  falsity  of 
history,  but  goes  farther,  stating  that  it  does 
not  exist.  "  That  which  constitutes  history 
proper  so  called  is  in  great  part  omitted  from 
works  on  the  subject."  It  must  be,  then,  be- 
cause it  is  omitted  that  pupils  so  often  fail  to 
find  it.  Emerson  agrees  with  Spencer.  *'  There 
is  properly  no  history.  All  public  facts  are  to 
be  individualized,  all  private  facts  are  to  be 
generalized.  There  is  at  the  surface  infinite 
variety  of  causes  ;  at  the  center  there  is  sim- 
plicity of  cause.  How  many  are  the  acts  of  one 
man  in  which  we  recognize  the  same  character  ! 
All  the  facts  of  history  preexist  in  the  mind  as 
laws.     The  instinct  of  the  mind,  the  purpose  of 


7 6  "  The    Young  Idea.'' 

nature,  betrays  itself  in  the  use  we  make  of  the 
signal  narrations  of  history." 

Who  can  gainsay  this  wisdom  of  our  philoso- 
pher ?  But  once  admit  it,  and  is  not  one  equally 
compelled  to  admit  the  proposition  laid  down 
with  emphasis  by  Prof.  Bain,  "  There  can  be 
J  no  systematic  teaching  of  history  in  school 
I  years  "  ?  Froude,  who  has  made  the  study  of 
Mhe  subject  the  main  occupation  of  his  life  says, 
'*  History  is  concerned  as  much  as  science  with 
external  facts.  History  depends  upon  exact 
knowledge ;  on  the  same  minute,  impartial, 
discriminating  observation  and  analysis  of  par- 
ticulars which  is  equally  the  basis  of  science. 
The  business  of  the  historian  is  not  with  im- 
mediate realities.  History  can  be  obtained  only 
by  scientific  method."  It  needs  but  little 
thought  to  understand  that  the  mental  attitude 
necessary  to  the  writer  of  human  records  is 
equally  essential  to  the  student  of  them. 

"  You  cannot  learn  everything,"  says  one  of 
England's  wisest  men.  ''  The  objects  of  knowl- 
edge have  multiplied  beyond  the  powers  of  the 
strongest  mind  to  keep  pace  with  them  all.  You 
must  choose  among  them."  As  regards  this 
special  line  of  study,  why  would  it  not  be  true 
and  comfortable  economy  to  ^'  skip  "  the  long 
.  lists  of  all  the  names  and  all  the  dates  of  all  the 
battles  fought  in  all  the  wars  of  all  the  countries 
through  all  the  ag^s,  over  all  the  earth?  With 
them  might  go  the  names  of  all  the  commanders 


"  The   Young  Idea:'  77 

in  all  these  contests,  and  by  great  effort  we  might 
resign  ourselves  to  sacrificing  also  the  numerical 
statements  of  the  killed  and  wounded  on  each 
side,  particularly  as  the  correct  number  is  in 
every  case  as  uncertain  a  matter  as  the  location 
of  the  mausoleum  of  Moses.  ''  It  is  a  good 
thing  to  make  an  end  of  what  might  go  on  for 
ever,"  and  to  consider  the  mass  of  names,  dates, 
and  figures  which  will  doubtless  accrue  in  the 
next  century,  to  be  learned  by  millions  yet 
unborn,  is  enough  to  give  one  intellectual  cere- 
bro-spinal  meningitis  on  the  spot. 

A  history  lesson  in  an  English  training-school 
for  teachers  is  thus  described: 

What  event  happened  on  September,  1066  ?  ' 

** '  Don't  know,  sir.' 

*'  'This  is  serious,  Mr.  Jones.  The  very  first 
date  !  How  long  did  you  devote  to  the  two 
pages  of  dates  which  I  set  ? ' 

About  an  hour,  sir.     I  had  a  good  deal  of 
other  work  to  do.* 

''  *  An  hour  !  An  hour  to  the  most  important 
period  of  history  !  This  is  scandalous,  out- 
rageous !  '  Then  a  solemn  entry  was  made,  and 
Jones's  doom  was  settled. 

**  Some  poor  souls  labored  for  hours  to  learn 
a  screed  of  dull  balderdash  which  was  without 
interest,  sequence,  or  value.  Some  could  reel 
off  a  list  of  half  a  thousand  battles,  giving  the 
year  when  fought,  the  day  of  the  month,  the 
number  killed,  the  names  of  the  commanders  on 
each    side.     But  many   lads     suffered    cruelly, 


78  ''  The   Young  Idear 

especially  when  they  reached  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses  and  the  battles  in  which  William  III.  took 
part.  The  grand  test  ran  something  in  this  way: 
*  Write  down  what  happened  in  1086,  1088,  looi, 
1 1 13,  1 139.'  The  students  scribbled,  then  the 
teacher  cried,  '  Change  papers  !  '  He  droned 
out  the  exact  words  of  the  miserable  little  book, 
and  each  man  scored  out  the  errors  on  the  paper 
in  front  of  him.  To  omit  a  semi-colon  was  cul- 
pable; to  leave  out  a  preposition  was  worse;  to 
substitute  a  word  for  one  of  those  used  in  the 
book  was  worse  still;  while  to  omit  the  day  of 
the  month  on  which  somebody  signed  something 
or  killed  somebody  else  was  regarded  as  next 
door  to  criminal.  Each  error  cancelled  the 
whole  answer  in  which  it  occurred.  Such  tom- 
foolery as  this  went  on  for  about  three  hours  per 
week.  Slow  pupils  worked  till  their  heads  were 
splitting  and  their  lives  were  a  misery,  for  they 
always  feared  lest  some  treacherous  date  should 
slide  away  at  the  most  critical  moment." 

But  the  significance  of  the  next  paragraph  ! 

*^  The  man  who  conducted  the  silly  torture  was 
a  sound  historical  student,  and  no  one  knew 
better  than  he  did  the  exact  lines  which  an  in- 
telligent teacher  should  follow.  But  he  was 
cramped."  (Have  we  any  similar  cases  in  this 
country  ?)  ^'  The  precious  departmental  system 
crippled  him,  and  he  passed  the  best  years  of  his 
life  in  starving  the  minds  of  some  of  the  cleverest 
young  men  in  England." 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  "  doing  evil  that  good 


**  The   Young  Idea!'  79 

may  come,"  though  few  criminals  can  take  refuge 
in  that  excuse.  There  are  also  some  fortunate 
natures  who  are  always  "  from  seeming  evil  still 
educing  good."  Such  was  Hon.  Andrew  D. 
White,  for  some  years  President  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity. The  teaching  in  history  wliich  he  re- 
ceived at  Yale  College,  as  *'  dreary,  stale,  flat, 
and  unprofitable,"  according  to  all  accounts,  as 
the  lessons  above  described,  led  him  to  revolt 
and  originate  a  method  of  his  own  for  which 
the  world  has  much  cause  to  thank  him. 

*'  To  cram  a  lad's  mind  with  mere  names  of 
places  he  never  saw  or  will  see,"  declares  one  of 
our  most  eminent  scholars  and  historians,  **  with 
statements  of  facts  which  he  cannot  possibly  un- 
derstand and  which  must  remain  merely  words 
to  him, — this,  in  my  opinion,  is  like  loading  his 
stomach  with  marbles.  It  is  wonderful  what  a 
quantity  of  things  of  this  kind  a  quick  boy  will 
commit  to  memory,  how  he  will  show  off  in 
examinations  and  delight  the  heart  of  his 
teacher." 

''  History,"  Froude  says  sorrowfully,  *'  often 
seems  to  me  like  a  child's  box  of  letters  with 
which  we  can  spell  any  word  we  please.  We 
have  only  to  pick  out  such  letters  as  we  want, 
arrange  them  as  we  like,  and  say  nothing  about 
those  which  do  not  suit  our  purpose."  Some- 
times it  seems  as  if  the  box  of  letters  was  shaken 
vigorously  and  the  word  was  spelled  by  chance, 
producing   crazy    combinations  like 


So  "  The   Young  I  dear 

"Aristotle  was  born  1384  B.  C.  in  Syracuse, 
New  York." 

"  Herodetus  was  a  descendant  of  Herod  the 
great  and  he  was  king  of  the  Jews." 

"  Rome  through  the  means  of  Sicily  had  her 
power  increased  and  became  as  an  empire  more 
promiscuous." 

"  Columbus  named  the  American  Continent 
after  Queen  Isabella  because  she  gave  money  for 
his  early  education," 

"  The  Hundred  Years  War  was  characterized 
by  several  pitched  events." 

"  The  period  of  Charles  II.  was  called  the 
Resurrection." 

"  Charles  Second  was  given  to  debauchery  and 
other  terrible  sports." 

"  One  of  the  principal  causes  of  the  Revolu- 
tion was  the  Stand  Back."  Some  minds,  not 
enlightened  by  this  statement,  might  have  gone 
on  for  years  laboring  under  the  delusion  that  it 
was  on  account  of  an  entirely  different  atti- 
tude. 

"  Fort  sumpter  was  in  janury  and  the  president 
called  for  15  men  this  was  in  baltimore  ";  yet 
according  to  Cicero,  **  History  is  the  witness  of 
the  times,  the  torch  of  truth,  the  life  of  mem- 
ory, the  teacher  of  life,  the  messenger  of  an- 
tiquity." 

That  much  of  the  study  of  History  is  a  mere 
chewing  of  "  words,  words,  words,"  seems  pretty 
clearly  attested  by  such  statements  as 


"  The   Young  Idea!'  8i 

*'  The  cynics  were  a  sort  of  swans  kept  by  the 
Greek  people." 

'*  The  Gladiaters  were  the  festivals  celebrated 
in  honor  of  the  Romans." 

''  The  Treaty  of  Utrecht  was  fought  between 
the  Zulus  and  the  English." 

It  may  be  discouraging  to  realize  the  truth  of 
Professor  Bain's  words,  "'  The  teaching  of  His- 
tory almost  appears  to  defy  method,"  but  our 
spirits  rise  instantly  at  the  very  next  words: 
*'  The  fact  that  it  presents  no  difficulty  to 
minds  of  ordinary  education,  and  is,  moreover, 
an  interesting  form  of  literature,  is  a  sufficient 
reason  for  not  spending  much  time  upon  it. 
The  highest  form  of  History  is  represented  in 
the  great  works  on  the  subject,  ancient  and 
modern.  These  are  the  self-chosen,  private 
reading  of  our  mature  years." 

No  doubt  the  majority  of  teachers  would  be 
more  than  willing  that  the  study  should  be  pur- 
sued in  that  particular,  personal,  and  private 
manner  ;  then  if  the  student  concluded  that 

'^  Cleopatra  was  a  man,"  or  that, 

''  Cleopatra  killed  herself  because  she  could 
not  win  the  love  of  Cicero,"  or  that 

"  Cleopatra  was  a  very  wicked  woman  who 
was  persecuted  by  Antony  and  died  of  the  bight 
of  an  asp  or  the  prick  of  a  poisonous  needle  and 
then  found  she  had  to  go  Rome  in  chains,"  no 
instructor  need  to  lie  awake  nights  trying  to 
devise  ways  and  means  of  giving  children  correct 


82  ''  The   Young  Idea'' 

ideas  of  the  fascinating  queen  whose  fate  was 
settled  by  somebody  in  the  declaration, 

*'  Cleopatra  was  conquered  by  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,"  and  who  is  thus  passed  down  the 
ages  :  ''  Cleopatra  was  the  first  king  of  Egypt  and 
Cleopatra's  Needle  was  erected  in  his  honor." 

Nor  would  this  private  and  interesting  reading 
convey  such  information  as  this: 

^'  Julius  Caesar  conquered  all  the  known  world. 
He  crossed  the  Rubicon  to  Alexandria.  He 
made  a  conspiracy  against  Rome  but  was  suc- 
cessful. At  the  senate  they  pulled  their  cloaks 
around  him  and  he  said  What,  Brutus  thou  too 
Casca  ?  And  in  the  year  27  B.C.  in  the  44th 
year  of  his  reign  and  the  seventy-sixth  of  his 
life  he  left  a  wife." 

'*Why  in  the  French  and  Indian  war  it  was 
difficult  for  Washington  to  fight  against  the  Brit- 
ish was  because  British  was  well  armed  while 
Washington's  army  was  composed  of  all  sorts  of 
weapons  of  every  denomination." 

Not  only  Massachusetts,  but  Maine,  Connec- 
ticut, New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Ohio,  Illinois,  and  California  high  schools  are 
represented  by  these  specimens  of  historical 
erudition.  The  horrible  suspicion  is  forced  upon 
us  that  there  may  be  some  truth  in  the  statement 
that  these  advanced  pupils,  candidates  for  col- 
leges, have  entered  the  high  schools  without 
knowing  How  to  Read  !  Still  another  suspicion 
arises,  that   they  do  not   know    How  to  Spell, 


"  The    Young  Idea"  ^2i 

judging  from  some  productions  which  have  the 
appearance  of  being  written  in  a  foreign  tongue. 
How  came  these  children  in  our  high  schools  ? 

"  Aristidees  whose  stern  integrity  was  called 
aristideesthe  juste  wrote  on  a  Shell  that  a  Citezen 
requested  he  would  write  his  name  on  it  and 
continued  to  call  him  the  juste  till  he  was  tired 
of  calling  him  so  and  his  Sirname  was  receaved 
through  the  integrity  of  his  Rivall  who  banished 
him  ten. years  for  his  ostrasism." 

''  Learning  without  thought,"  says  Confucius, 
"  is  labor  lost  ;  thought  without  learning  is  per- 
ilous." Truly  there  is  much  loss,  though  little 
peril  of  either  thought  or  learning,  in  some  of 
our  schools. 

"  When  the  Fammin  had  killed  every  one  in 
Rome  Alarick  went  to  Rome  and  said  to  them 
all  the  money  there  is  in  the  world  is  here  and 
you  shall  have  the  hole  of  it  if  you  do  not  take 
Refug  in  the  churches." 

*'  The  sarasens  came  to  England  with  William 
the  Conquror  and  found  the  sarasen  Language 
they  made  all  the  People  write  there  lawes  in  it 
and  they  brought  the  fudale  system  with  them 
and  rang  it  at  every  night  at  12  oclock  at  night." 

"  The  resurrection  in  Paris  was  headed  by  the 
Basteel  and  the  royal  Family  was  an  ungovern- 
able mob." 

"  Louis  sixteen  succeeded  his  granfather  20 
years  old.  Turgot  was  made  into  finances  and 
malsherbet  into  the  minister  of  Interier." 


84  *'  The    Young  Idea' 

*^  The  convention  divided  Robespiere  into 
two  violent  parties  with  Danton  at  the  head  of 
the  other  one  and  they  executed  a  charge  of 
tyranny." 

^^  After  all,"  writes  a  young  essayist  on  the 
subject,  *^  every  one  must  reach  there  goal  in  His- 
tory by  the  piercing  of  a  subtule  nature  through 
the  great  abex  of  life,"  if  anybody  can  find  out 
what  that  is. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

"  INTELLIGENCE    FOR    THE    WORLD." 

It  is  almost  a  pity  that  ''  when  Sir  Philip  Sid- 
ney made  writing  fashionable  everybody  took  to 
writing  some  intelligence  for  the  literary  world." 
It  is  almost  a  pity  that  so  many  took  to  writ- 
ing before  it  was  fashionable,  if  the  children 
of  to-day  must  learn  all  the  writers'  names, 
deeds  and  misdeeds  ;  all  'the  titles,  plots,  and 
characteristics  of  their  works. 

When  Socrates  gave  the  list  of  the  things  that 
Alcibiades  had  learned,  it  was  a  very  short  one. 
^'  I  pretty  accurately  know  what  thou  hast  learned. 
Thou  hast  learned,  then,  thy  letters,  to  play  on 
the  cithara,  and  to  wrestle,"  and  says  Philip  Gil- 
bert Hamerton  in  his  Jntellectual  Life,  ^'  Such 
an  education    was    possible    to    an    Athenian, 


''  The    Young  Idear  85 

because  a  man  situated  as  Alcibiades  was  situ- 
ated in  the  intellectual  history  of  the  world  had 
no  past  behind  him  which  deserved  his  attention 
more  than  the  present  which  surrounded  him. 
What  English  parent  would  be  content  that  his 
son  should  have  the  education  of  Alcibiades,  or 
of  Horace,  or  of  Shakespeare  !  Yet  although 
the  burdens  laid  upon  the  memory  have  been 
steadily  augmented,  its  powers  have  not  in- 
creased. Our  brains  are  not  better  constituted 
than  those  of  our  forefathers,  although  where 
they  learned  one  thing  we  attempt  to  learn  six." 

One  of  these  six — or  sixteen,  as  the  case  may 
be,  for  our  courses  of  study  are  *'  movable  feasts," 
— is  English  Literature  ;  a  mere  trifle,  to  be  sure, 
only  the  lives  of  a  few  hundred  men  and  women 
with  their  writings  in  prose  and  poetry,  in  every 
possible  style,  and  in  every  degree  of  excellence. 
Prof.  Bain  says,  ^^  It  is  the  nature  of  science  to 
be  more  or  less  dry,  but  Literature  is  nothing  if 
not  interesting,"  so  young  minds  have  that  great 
advantage  in  this  particular  study, — it  entertains 
as  well  as  instructs.  But  his  next  words  are 
not  so  encouraging  :  "  We  may  admire  Chaucer, 
Spenser,  Shakespeare,  and  Milton,  but  they  are 
not  the  one  thing  needful  in  an  English  class. 
Not  one  of  these  writers  is  child's  play."  But 
some  children  play  with  them,  nevertheless,  with 
varying  results  : 

"  Chaucer's  sattires  are  never  overwhelmed  by 
unkindness," 


86  "  The   Young  Idea'' 

"  Chaucer  tried  to  do  good  to  his  following 
beings." 

'*  Chauser's  works  add  there  little  to  Litera- 
tur." 

"  His  works  Chaucer  contains  rare  scraps  of 
humour." 

''  A  flow  of  sweet  religion  runs  through  all  the 
writings  written  by  Chaucer." 

*'  Spencer's  were  distinguished  by  humerous 
and  deep  religious  sentiments.     His  writeings." 

''  Spenser  was  not  happy  when  his  wife  and 
infant  were  burned  to  death  in  sight  of  the  in- 
surgents." 

"  He  was  not  so  very  fond  of  Ireland  though 
he  lived  in  a  very  nice  place  where  the  queen 
sent  him  to." 

^'  Spenser  went  back  to  England  sos  he  could 
die  broken  hearted  of  grief." 

'*  Spenser  was  a  policy  sort  of  man  though  quite 
good." 

''  Shakespeare  is  the  myraid  headed  Shake- 
speare he  wrote  a  very  good  number  of  pieces." 

'^  Shakespeare  was  a  man  very  famous  in  his 
day,  and  left  his  bed  to  his  wife." 

"  William  Shakspear  was  a  good  writer.  He 
was  born  on  Stamford,  and  nobody  knows  any- 
thing about  him." 

**  Shakespears  friends  wrote  on  his  grave  that 
hed  be  cursed  if  he  moved  his  bones." 

*'  Shakispear  was  buried  in  a  graveyard  and 
England  has  never  dared  to  move  him," 


"  The   Young  Idea''  87 

"  Hamlet  is  a  very  good  play  in  some  points, 
but  on  the  whole  is  rather  melancoly." 

''  Julius  Caesars  play  has  not  got  the  right  name 
because  its  Brutus  and  Casius,  who  is  the  hero 
really,"  and  it  may  be  timely  to  note  just  here 
that  ''  Brutus  and  Cassius  were  two  dramatic 
poets." 

"  Otello  was  somewhat  jealous  of  lago  and 
smothered  his  wife." 

*'  lago  is  the  very  person  of  hypocritesy." 

^*  The  Merchant  of  Venice  only  had  a  pound 
of  flesh." 

^'  Shylock  had  no  mercy  on  any  body  who 
failed  in  business." 

"  Portia  was  a  judge  dressed  up  in  a  womans 
clothes  and  old  Shylock  called  her  Daniel." 

"  Portias  recitation  about  mercy  is  considered 
one  of  Shakspere's  best  prose  compositions." 

''  King  Leer  died  after  he  was  out  bareheaded 
in  a  very  bad  storm." 

"  Cornelia  was  the  most  becoming  daughter  of 
King  Lear." 

"  Macbeth  had  some  of  his  wifes  ambition 
and  set  her  up  to  kill  the  king." 

"  Macbeth  did  not  really  see  a  dagger  but  he 
saw  one  in  his  mind  and  clutched  wildly  at  the 
handle." 

''Macbeth  was  always  very  brave  until  he 
heard  some  one  knock  on  a  gate." 

"  He  said  if  he  had  got  to  kill  Duncan  hed 
like  to  do  it  as  quick  as  possible  so  as  to  get  it 
all  off  of  his  mind." 


88  «  The    Young  Idea'' 

"  Lady  Macbeth  was  wife  to  Macbeth  he  was 
her  husband." 

"  Lady  Macbeth  used  to  get  out  of  bed  some 
nights  and  go  walking  round  to  wash  her 
hands." 

"  Lady  Macbeth  was  a  very  tenderhearted 
woman  who  loved  her  husband  and  became  very 
horrible  and  a  monstrous." 

^'  The  Weird  Sisters  were  Twin  Sisters." 

"  The  Weird  Sisters  were  in  caldrons  and  kept 
stirring  them  up." 

^'  If  one  reads  Shakeper's  works  he  finds 
many  several  interesting  and  mysterous  things 
in  him." 

**  Miltons  works  are  energetical  and  quite 
graceful." 

"  Milton  was  rather  cross  being  blind." 

*'  Milton  advised  everybody  to  get  a  Divorce." 

^'  Milton  was  so  handsome  they  thought  he 
was  a  lady  in  christ  college." 

*'  Miltons  paredise  lost  is  quite  a  poem  on  the 
whole." 

"  Paradise  Lost  is  the  angels  who  fell  down 
out  of  heaven  pursued  by  satan  who  was  also  a 
angle." 

"  Milton  wrote  the  Deserted  Village  or  Ham- 
let." 

Prof.  Bain  further  says :  '*  The  teaching  of 
English  Literature  is  a  mixture  of  what  is  easy, 
intelligible,  and  interesting  to  the  young,  with 
what  is  technical,  abstruse,  and  accessible  only 


*'  The    Young  Idea,''  89 

to  the  mature  mind.  There  is  no  possibility  of 
contriving  a  course  that  shall  in  every  point 
keep  the  steady  level  of  the  juvenile  capacity." 
Well,  if  that  cannot  be  done,  let  us  bring  the 
juvenile  capacity  up  to  the  steady  level  of  Lit- 
erature. What  else  are  our  schools  for  ?  Are 
we  to  be  deterred  by  such  trifles  as  technicalities 
and  abstruseness  ?  "  The  great  fault  in  the  early 
teaching  is  to  address  it  to  minds  so  little  ac- 
quainted with  literary  qualities  as  not  to  com- 
prehend the  meaning  of  the  terms  employed." 
But  does  not  education  consist  in  making  minds 
comprehend  ? 

Says  a  prominent  educator  :  ^*  Literature  is  one 
of  the  very  last  things  to  be  attempted.  To  ap- 
preciate it  requires  much  education,  often  much 
experience  of  life,  great  familiarity  with  lan- 
guage, and  often  with  social  habits  and  customs." 
But  he  is  vastly  mistaken  if  he  thinks  we  at- 
tempt it  too  early  or  without  enough  of  this  sort 
of  familiarity.     For  instance  : 

'''  The  Saxon  Chronical  was  the  seven  deadly 
sins." 

"  The  Saxon  Cronicle  was  the  union  of  seven 
Saxon  kings." 

*'The  Druids  were  poets  who  liyed  in  stone 
pillars  and  huts." 

''  Bards  were  like  hand  organ  men  they  went 
round  singing  to  the  people  who  lived  in  the 
country." 

''  The  Knights  of  the  Round  Table  went  to 
jthg  shrine  of  Bocacio." 


go  ^'  The    Young  Idea'* 

**  Old  English  Ballards  did  not  last  long  be- 
cause the  tyranny  and  war  which  caused  the 
people's  minds  to  turn  to  love  soon  became  sim- 
ple and  was  not  considered  to  instruct  the  people 
so  it  ceased." 

'*  English  Literature  was  very  slow  in  coming 
to  Englani  In  the  Elizabethean  Age  chimneys 
were  introduced  into  houses  and  beds.  Once 
houses  had  chimneys  and  a  whole  was  left  in 
the  roof." 

**  Sir  Philip  Sidney  was  tutor  to  queen  Eliza- 
beth. His  character  was  of  the  most  unques- 
tionable." 

'*  Queen  Elizabeth  soon  wearied  on  the  death 
of  Sydney  and  then  soon  died  herself.  The 
cause  of  her  death  being  the  execution  of  Syd- 
ney the  thought  of  which  she  could  not  bear." 

"  Gray  used  to  write  his  poems  in  a  diserted 
graveyard  and  his  elegy  is  one  of  the  finest  pro- 
ductions of  the  kind  which  stamp  the  school  to 
which  they  belong." 

''Smith  was  quite  sarcastical  and  sneering  in 
many  of  his  pieces  like  Gulliver  and  the  Tail  of 
a  Tub  and  Hudibras  and  many  others  of  that 
style." 

'*  Addison- was  a  pretty  writer.  He  was  that 
is  very  genteel  in  his  ways  of  writing." 

"  Bacon  was  not  much  of  a  humerous  writer. 
He  wrote  some  on  government  and  how  to  take 
care  of  your  garden." 

"  Cowper  and  Burns  were  marked  for  simi- 


**  The    Young  Idea.*'  91 

larity  of   style  and   they  were  both  somewhat 
poor." 

^'  Sir  Thomas  More  called  Martyr  Moore  was 
noted  for  being  quite  a  martyr.  He  wrote  about 
a  place  he  went  to  that  never  existed  only  for 
very  good  people.     They  were  no  such  a  place." 

^'  Moore  has  beautifully  pictured  in  verse  how 
Jeovah  and  his  people  escaped  from  Ferro  by 
crossing  a  sea.  He  says  thus  sound  the  loud 
tymbal  Jeovah  has  escaped  from  the  army  of 
Ferro  by  crossing  the  sea  thus  separating  them- 
selves from  Ferro  and  his  army  by  the  sea  ;  both 
men  and  horses  and  chariots  of  Ferro  went  down. 
When  the  tempest  sounded  over  the  sea  the 
people  cryed  Jeovah  is  free." 

'^  The  representative  men  of  the  i8th  Century 
were  Mrs.  Shelley,  Matthew  Gregory  Lewis  and 
Mrs.  Radcliffe." 

"  Byron  wrote  Pilgrims  Progres  a  prose  theo- 
logical article." 

Yet  we  are  told  that  this  is  the  study  to  be 
last  attempted  !  Does  our  critic  think  that  the 
schools  exist  only  for  the  purpose  of  teaching 
children  what  they  already  know,  or  that  we  can 
wait  until  they  are  ready  to  receive  what  we  can 
give  them  ?  He  forgets  what  an  enormous  load 
of  learning  we  are  obliged  to  pile  upon  them, 
and  how  short  a  time  is  allowed  for  the  piling. 
Pope  says  that  ^^  half  our  knowledge  we  must"^ 
snatch,  not  take,"  and  was  not  Pope  a  wise 
man  ? 


92  ''  The   Young  Idear 

Our  critic  further  says,  "  The  tree  of  knowl- 
edge is  indeed  vast  in  our  schools,  but  it  is  after 
all  but  an  overgrown  weed.  Good  masters  learn 
to  hang  many  a  garland  on  its  unsightly  knots 
by  the  way,  and  to  bend  many  of  its  branches 
into  unnatural  but  more  or  less  useful  direc- 
tions." To  the  unprejudiced  mind  it  might 
seem  considerably  less  than  more. 

"  It  is  now  plain  to  the  best  educationists," 
says  one  who  ranks  high  among  them,  *^  that  our 
own  literature  must  be  the  first  to  awaken  liter- 
ary interest  and  prepare  the  way  for  universal 
literature."  But  there  is  a  considerable  amount 
even  of  our  own,  and  each  day  has  a  limited  num- 
ber of  hours.  Let  us  take, — say  a  dozen  of  our 
most  famous  writers.  Let  us  add  to  each  name 
the  owner's  date  and  place  of  birth,  his  princi- 
pal characteristics,  and  the  most  important 
events  of  his  life.  Next,  of  course,  we  need  an 
enumeration  of  the  works  of  each  writer — a 
dozen  apiece  will  do,  though  three  dozen  would 
be  a  great  deal  better — with  the  plan  or  plot  of 
each  one,  its  particular  qualities  of  style,  and  its 
moral,  if  it  have  one.  These  ingredients  must 
be  judiciously  mixed,  thoroughly  stirred,  and 
administered  with  a  ladle,  as  the  use  of  a  tea- 
spoon would  waste  altogether  too  much  time. 
Thus  shall  our  pupils  be  educated  in  American 
Literature. 

"  Longfellow  was  born  in  the  about  the  i8 
century.     He  wrote  many  works  in  prose  and 


**  The   Yotmg  Idea,**  93 

some  in  poetry.  His  principal  proses  are  Outer 
Mare  a  French  work  and  Hyperion." 

'*  Longfellow  is  the  greatest  poet  of  America 
except  Tennyson.  He  wrote  odes  to  a  Water 
fowl  about  birds.  I'here  is  a  Longfellow  day  in 
our  school." 

**  He  was  a  poet  of  the  natural  very  sweet  and 
simple  and  his  lines  are  marked  with  great  en- 
ergy and  breadth  of  scope.  He  wrote  about  an 
old  clock  on  his  stairs." 

*'  Evangeline  we  see  her  in  pictures.  She  was 
one  of  Longfellows  and  we  greatly  admire  her 
calm  and  heroic  manners." 

**  Irving's  education  unlike  that  of  other  great 
literary  men  was  not  expansive." 

*'  When  this  country  was  a  providence  of 
Great  Britain  and  Peter  Stuyvesant  was  Gov- 
ernor of  New  Netherlands  there  was  a  certain 
personage  by  the  name  of  Rip  Van  Winkle." 

"  Rip  Van  Winkle's  wife  had  died  from  burst- 
ing a  blood  vessel  at  a  peddler  in  a  fit  of  pas- 
sion." 

"  The  only  human  being  poor  Rip  Van  Winkel 
knew  when  he  got  over  his  nap  was  his  faithless 
dog  who  never  deserted  him." 

*'  Irving  was  not  quite  so  much  of  a  poet  as 
some  other  writers.  All  his  work  was  prose  and 
it  was  considered  very  funny  even  in  our  day. 
Irving  is  not  living  at  present  having  died  some 
time  past." 

"  Byrant  wrote  for  a  newspaper  a  good  deal 


94  "  The   Young  Idea:' 

and  he  wrote  some  other  thmgs.  He  wrote 
Thanotopsis  about  death  and  became  very  fam- 
ous suddenly  and  rather  unexpected." 

"  Bryant  wrote  libery  of  poetry  and  song  and 
I  don't  remember  any  of  his  other  pieces  except 
about  violets." 

*^The  death  of  the  flowers  was  one  of  his  most 
mornful  poems.     It  is  a  sort  of  wail  of  sorrow." 

^'  Hawthorne  was  a  writer  in  the  Salem  custom 
house  and  then  he  wrote  scarlet  letter." 

"  Hawthorne  was  sort  of  stuck  up  and  wrote 
mysteriously." 

''  Hawthorn  wrote  the  story  of  seven  fables 
and  the  breakfast  table." 

"  Holmes  is  a  rather  witty  sort  of  a  writer. 
He  wrote  the  wreck  of  the  Hesperus  and  the 
Launching  of  the  Ship." 

**  Prescott  wrote  Gibbons  History  of  the 
Romans." 

**  Whittier  has  lived  for  many  years  in  Cam- 
bridge. His  most  famous  work  begins  Tear 
her  tattered  ensine  down." 

It  is  true,  of  course,  that  we  ourselves  have, 
through  long  years  of  reading  and  association, 
become  as  familiar  with  these  names  as  with 
those  of  our  own  households,  and  it  may  be  a 
trifle  more  difficult  for  these  younger  minds  to 
retain  such  a  mass  of  information,  falling  upon 
their  devoted  heads  somewhat  in  the  fashion  of 
a  snow-slide.  But  are  they  to  be  left  in  heathen- 
ish ignorance  of  the  literary  lights  of  the  w^orld, 


"  The   Young  Idea''  95 

especially  of  our  own  country  and  our  own  cen- 
tury ? 

Much  of  the  study  of  English  Literature  is  as 
sound  and  satisfactory  as  Mr.  Silas  Wegg's  read- 
ing of  ''  The  Decline  and  Fall  Off  The  Rooshan 
Empire  "  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bofifin  in  the  Bower, — 
*'  going  straight  across  country  at  every  thing 
that  came  before  him  ;  taking  all  the  hard  words, 
biographical  and  geographical  ;  getting  rather 
shaken  by  Hadrian,  Trajan,  and  the  Antonines  ; 
stumbling  at  Polybius  (pronounced  Polly 
Beeious  and  supposed  by  Mr.  Boffin  to  be  a 
Roman  virgin)  heavily  unseated  by  Titus  An- 
toninus Pius  ;  up  again  and  galloping  smoothly 
with  Augustus  ;  getting  over  the  ground  well 
with  Commodus,"  and  some  pupils  might  say  of 
their  teachers  as  Boffin  said  of  his  reader,  '^  Wegg 
takes  it  easy,  but  upon  my  soul  these  are 
scarers  !  I  didn't  think  this  morning  there 
were  half  so  many  scarers  in  print.  But  I'm  in 
for  it  now  !  " 


CHAPTER  Vni. 

BRAINS    WITHOUT    BODIES. 

"We  were  informed  tliat  our  poor  children 
were  to  be  taught  reading,  writing,  and  arith- 
metic.    Now    this    school,    gentlemen,  teaches 


9^  "  The   Young  Idea'' 

them  the  contents  of  their  own  insides  !  If  the 
Author  of  the  Universe  had  meant  us  to  know 
what  our  livers  are  like,  he  would  not  have  hid- 
den them  away  in  security.  Gentlemen,  this 
flying  in  the  face  of  Providence  must  be  scotched 
and  even  killed  !  " 

It  has  taken  a  long  time  to  convince  human 
beings  that  it  is  wise  to  know  something  about 
"  the  contents  of  their  own  insides."  Even  now 
there  are  many  skeptics,  and,  even  among  those 
who  profess  to  be  converted,  the  change  of  heart 
is  more  theoretical  than  practical.  ^'  People  are 
beginning  to  see  that  the  first  requisite  to  success 
in  life  is  to  be  a  good  animal,"  says  Herbert 
Spencer.  It  is  fortunate  that  they  have  made 
even  a  beginning.  The  clearer  vision  will  no 
doubt  follow  in  due  time. 

Aristotle  laid  down  the  injunction,  '^  Since  the 
body  of  men  comes  under  our  care  before  the 
mind,  it  should  be  attended  to  before  it."  He 
considered  a  commonwealth  essentially  defective 
if  gymnastics  were  not  an  integral  part  of  its 
code.  Plato  called  him  a  cripple  who  cultivated 
only  his  mind  ;  he  wanted  the  years  from  sev- 
enteen to  twenty  devoted  to  athletics.  Juvenal 
declared,  '^  Our  prayers  should  be  for  a  sound 
mind  in  a  healthy  body."  In  the  words  of 
Montaigne,  ^'  'Tis  not  a  soul,  'tis  not  a  body  that 
we  are  training  up,  but  a  man,  and  we  ought  not 
to  divide  him,"  and  Rousseau,  *'  You  are  teaching 
science  ;  very  good.      I    am   dealing  with    the 


''  The   Yoicng  I  dear  97 

instrument  by  which  science  is  acquired.  All 
who  have  reflected  upon  the  mode  of  life  among 
the  ancients,  attribute  to  gymnastic  exercises 
that  vigor  of  body  and  mind  which  so  notably 
distinguished  them  from  us  moderns.  Care  of 
the  body  is  the  wisest  lesson  children  are  ever 
taught,  but  the  one  that  is,  and  always  will  be, 
the  most  neglected." 

Yet  many  of  our  courses  of  study  require  in- 
struction in  Physiology,  and  some  of  our  pupils 
know  a  great  deal  about  it.     For  instance  : 

**  The  brain  is  the  seat  of  conciseness." 

*'  What  should  we  do  without  a  brane  a  brane  is"^ 
a  very  nice  thing  to  have." 

**  We  know  in  our  brain  when  we  cut  our 
finger  and  if  we  did  not  have  one  we  could  not 
feel  the  pain  and  it  would  be  very  bad  for  us." 

The  brain  is  a  bony  cage.  It  has  most  work 
to  do  of  anything." 

"  The  brain  is  like  the  telegraph  office,  and 
the  nerves  are  the  wars  which  goes  from  the 
brain  all  around  your  body." 

"  The  biggest  globe  in  the  body  is  called  your 
brain.  The  head  is  in  the  skull  and  the  skull  is 
the  brain  which  protects  it."  ^^^^ 

'^  If  the  brain  is  hurt  in  any  way  all  your  body  \ 
kinder  kinks  up  and  you  have  fits  or  convulsives    ) 
or  something   and   then   one   of  these   days  you  / 
will  die." 

Here,  truly  is  *'  much  throwing  about  of 
brains,"  as  Guildenstern  declared. 


98  ''  The    Young  Idea:' 

Herbert  Spencer  also  says,  ''  Men  who  would 
resent  as.  an  insult  any  imputation  of  ignorance 
respecting  the  fabled  labors  of  a  fabled  demi- 
god, show  not  the  slightest  shame  in  confessing 
that  they  do  not  know  what  are  the  actions  of 
the  spinal  cord,  what  is  the  normal  rate  of 
pulsation,  or  how  the  lungs  are  inflated."  But 
their  children  know  : 

'^  The  spinal  column  is  made  up  of  little  bones 
and  it  extends  from  the  head  to  the  heels." 

"  The  spine  is  trangular  and  situated  in  the 
nervous  system." 

^'  The  spinal  cavity  is  a  cord  which  is  the 
spleen,"  and  *'  The  spleen  is  apart  of  the  liver 
which  is  attached  to  the  spine." 

This  is  something  like  what  the  prophet 
Ezekiel  saw  in  his  vision,  ^'  As  if  a  wheel  had 
been  in  the  midst  of  a  wheel."  Concerning 
"  the  rate  of  pulsation,"  ignorance  of  which  our 
philosopher  deplores; 

*'  Our  puis  is  in  there  rist  an  it  goes  60  times  a 
minit." 

*'  The  pulse  beats  for  the  artery," — evidently  a 
sort  of  vicarious  operation. 

*'  Whenever  an  artery  is  exposed  the  pulse  can 
be  felt." 

^'  The  elasticities  of  the  arteries  is  a  share  in 
the  circulation  of  the  blood." 

"The  pulsation  of  the  arteries  is  a  movement 
of  the  heart  and  throws  the  blood  into  muscular 
contraction." 


"  The    Young  Idea'*  99 

"A man's  pulse  goes  a  great  deal  quicker  than 
you  can  count.  It  is  in  your  fingers  when  you 
feel  it." 

And  '^  the  inflation  of  the  lungs/* — why,  that 
is  a  subject  with  which  they  are  perfectly  familiar  : 

"  Breathing  is  something  we  can  not  do  with- 
out.    It  is  something  we  have  to  do  all  our  life." 

''  Breathing  is  a  substance  which  we  can  not 
see.     We  may  hear  it  in  many  cases." 

"  If  we  were  to  live  without  breathing  we 
could  not  do  it.  It  is  one  of  the  most  important 
things  we  have  to  depend  on." 

"  If  we  could  not  breathe  we  should  not  be 
able  to  live,  so  therefore  we  are  taught  to  breathe 
so  that  there  might  be  somebody  living." 

Thus  indirectly  are  our  schools  preserving  the 
human  race — if  the  children  are  really  ''  taught 
to  breathe."  But  how  extensive  and  how  profit- 
able is  the  teaching?  Like  all  other  instruction 
it  is  likely  to  be  a  little  obscure  to  the  child  if 
accompanied  by  technicalities,  as  in   the  case  of 

*'  The  diapfram  is  our  breath   and  we  only/\ 
breathe  when  we  read."  ^^' 

Still  our  English  scientist  is  not  satisfied : 
*'  While  anxious  that  their  sons  should  be  well 
up  in  the  superstructures  of  two  thousand  years 
ago,  they  care  not  that  they  should  be  taught 
anything  about  the  structure  and  functions  of 
their  own  bodies  ;  nay,  would  even  disapprove 
of  such  instruction." 

But  in  spite  of  the  parents'  indifference  or  op- 


loo  *'  The    Young  Idear 

position,  their  children  do  somehow  manage  to 
accumulate  a  vast  amount  of  ignorance  about 
the  functions  of  their  bodies  : 

"A  tendon  ties  the  muscles  to  all  the  bones." 

''  Tendon  is  effected  either  by  muscular  tissue 
or  by  means  of  white  firm  masses  of  glistening 
known  as  fibrous  tissue." 

"Ligaments  is  a  kind  of  elements  in  which 
they  used  to  join  one  joint  to  another  when  they 
are  broken.  They  are  used  to  connect  bands  or 
cords." 

"'  The  auditorium  nerves  has  no  special  sense. 
It  has  sonorous  vibrations." 

**  Triceps  muscular  restore  to  bent  part  to  a 
straight  condition  those  of  the  back,  the  arm. 
Abductor  muscular  are  those  which  moved  the 
part  from  the  axis  of  the  body." 

*'  Digestion  is  brought  on  by  the  lungs  having 
something  the  matter  with  them." 

*^  Bronchitis  is  the  organ  of  the  body  which 
warns  the  lungs  of  the  presence  of  bad  air." 

**  The  liver  is  absorbed  in  the  blood  and  we 
can  feel  it  on  the  open  right  hand  of  the  body." 

"  The  facial  nerves  are  perforated  by  a  long 
and  torturing  canal  and  comes  from  an  opening 
in  the  ear." 

"  Transfusion  of  blood  is  killing  one  man  to 
get  it  into  the  other." 

It  was  Josh  Billings  who  said,  ^^  It  is  better 
not  to  know  so  many  things  than  to  know  so 
many  things  that  aint  so."  J 


"  The    Young  Idea.!'  ior 

Is  it  possible  to  find  a  greater  fallacy  in  our 
whole  educational  scheme  than  that  the  lack  of 
time  prevents  proper  attention  to  the  physical  wel- 
fare of  pupils  ?  Yet  the  plea  is  almost  universal, 
as  is  the  neglect  for  which  it  forms  the  excuse. 
As  well  might  a  farmer  assert  that  his  desire  for 
fine  crops  was  a  reason  for  neglecting  the  weed- 
ing and  watering  of  his  fields. 

Sir  John  Lubbock  complains  that  in  England 
"  out  of  four  and  one-half  million  children  less 
than  twenty-five  thousand  were  examined  last 
year  in  any  branch  of  science  as  a  special  study. 
Only  fourteen  thousand  studied  the  laws  of 
health  and  animal  physiology."  But  what  of 
thg,t?  Probably  most  of  the  four  and  one- 
half  million  could  reduce  frightful  common 
fractions  to  utterly  useless  decimal  ones  ;  tell 
all  about  some  geographical  locality  nobody 
outside  of  the  school-room  ever  heard  of  or 
wanted  to  know  about,  or  parse  an  adverbial 
phrase  expressing  some  metaphysical  truth  en- 
tirely beyond  the  comprehension  of  the  parser. 

"  The  question  of  teaching  anatomy  and  physi- 
ology in  our  public  schools,"  declares  Dr.  Austin 
Flint  of  New  York,  **  is  one  which  hardly  ad- 
mits of  discussion,  provided  these  subjects  can 
be  taught  effectively.  It  is  an  error  to  imagine 
that  they  are  necessarily  encumbered  with  tech- 
nical names  and  expressions,"  or  that  the  teach- 
ing need  result  in  technicalities  run  mad,  as, 

"  The  tinpanum  is  the  external  ear  compli- 


Tc5  ''  The    Young  Idea'^ 

cated  by  appearances  of  moving  bones  and  oval 
shaped  vestibule  membranes." 

It  is  probable  that  as  long  as  men  have  bodies 
they  will  also  have  stomachs,  and  very  likely 
that  as  long  as  they  have  stomachs  they  will  oc- 
casionally feel  the  need  of  something  to  fill 
them.  Hunger  is  a  third  certainty  which  can 
be  safely  classed  with  the  other  two,  proverbially 
"  the  only  sure  things  on  earth, — death  and 
taxes." 

*'  We  cook  our  food  because  their  of  five  ways 
of  cooking  potatoes.  We  should  die  if  we  ate 
our  food  roar,"  and  we  might  roar  if  we  had  to. 

"  The  function  of  food  is  to  do  its  proper 
work  in  the  body.  Its  proper  work  is  to  well 
masticate  the  food  and  it  goes  through  without 
dropping  instead  of  being  pushed  through  by 
the  skin." 

"  Food  is  digested  by  the  action  of  the  lungs. 
The  food  passes  through  your  windpipe  to  the 
pores  and  then  passes  of  your  body  by  evapor- 
ation." 

*^  Food  is  digested  when  we  put  it  into  our 
mouths  our  teeth  chews  it  and  our  tongue  rolls 
it  down  our  body." 

"  Food  is  something  very  good  for  us  to  take 
bone  giving  and  heatmaking  food  and  if  we  did 
not  absorb  our  food  we  would  have  no  stomach 
or  degestion  of  the  Liver  and  the  blood  corpus; 
sels  would  shiver  and  we  would  be  not  much 
good  to  nobody  if  we  did  not  ate." 


'^  The    You  Jig  Idea'^  103 

The  great  mass  of  men  have  already  outgrown 
their  love  for  raw  food,  and  cooking  has  become 
one  of  the  most  important  of  our  arts,  while  a 
first-class  cook  commands  a  larger  salary  than 
the  president  of  a  college.  This  is  in  accor- 
dance with  the  eternal  fitness  of  things,  if 
the  proverb  is  true,  "No  dinner,  no  man." 
What  are  all  the  railroads  laid  and  bridges 
built  and  Atlantic  cables  swung  from  shore  to 
shore  ;  what  are  all  the  songs  sung,  sermons 
preached,  and  books  written,  but  the  embodiment 
of  bread, — the  apotheosis  of  beef  and  potato  ? 
''  With  Stupidity  and  sound  Digestion,  man  may 
front  much,"  says  poor  dyspeptic  Carlyle,  "but 
what  in  these  dull^  unimaginative  days  are  the 
terrors  of  Conscience  to  the  diseases  of  the 
Liver  ?  Not  on  Morality,  but  on  Cookery,  let  us 
build  our  strongholds."  But  as  a  man's  very 
morality  is  often  the  mere  effect,  of  which  cook- 
ing is  the  first  great  cause,  why  are  we  revers- 
ing any  natural  order  in  caring  for  the  stomach 
before  we  trouble  ourselves  about  the  condition 
of  the  soul  !  Voltaire  declared  that  the  fate  of 
many  a  nation  has  depended  upon  the  good  or 
bad  digestion  of  its  ministers,  and  we  discover 
the  fact  for  ourselves  if  we  read  history  to  any 
purpose.  But  we  need  not  necessarily  turn 
to  history  for  proofs  that  we  are  what  our 
food  makes  us  ;  that  the  kind  of  dinner  deter- 
mines the  kind  of  man.  O  Cooks  of  the  world, 
for  how  much  meanness,  mischief,  and  misery  are 


I04  ''  The    Young  Idea:' 

some  of  you  responsible  ;  how  much  strength  of 
soul  and  body,  how  much  courage,  patience, 
ambition,  inspiration  is  due  to  others  of  your 
number!  With  all  our  fine  notions  and  aesthetic 
theories,  it  is  less  the  intellectual  laws  of  cal- 
culus than  the  physical  laws  of  the  kitchen  that 
work  for  the  woe  or  the  welfare  of  the  world. 

Maine  Liquor  Laws,  Prohibition,  and  High 
License  do  not  appear  to  have  made  any 
tremendous  progress  in  checking  the  ruin 
wrought  by  rum  ;  nor  can  much  improvement 
be  expected  from  the  new  requirement  of  temper- 
ance training,  if,  as  is  absolutely  the  case  in  cer- 
tain schools  w^here  this  is  required  by  law, 
teachers  are  forbidden  to  use  the  word  rum,  or  to 
utter  one  syllable  outside  the  text-book  in  de- 
nunciation of  drunkenness.  In  the  words  of  one 
of  these  instructors,  "'  I  teach  ^  the  effect  of 
alcohol  on  the  tissues.'  The  children  don't 
recognize  alcohol  when  they  see  it,  smell  it,  or 
taste  it  ;  it  has  a  different  name  in  their  homes 
and  in  the  corner  grog-shop,  and  they  have  no 
more  idea  that  such  instruction  has  any  relation 
to  their  drunken  fathers  and  mothers  and  their 
degraded  homes,  than  they  have  about  proto- 
plasm and  primeval  man." 

These  are  the  children  who  are  able  to  tell 
you  all  about  alcohol: 

"  Alcohol  is  a  licked  poisson." 

"  Alcohol  is  a  liquid  poisoun." 

**  Alcohol  makes  the  mussels  grow  fat." 


^'  The    You  tig  I  dear  105 

**  We  should  never  drink  alkihol  because  it 
bloats  out  our  body." 

"  When  we  drink  alchihol  and  other  things  it 
makes  the  legs  kind  of  tvvinkly." 

''  We  must  never  eat  alcohoU  because  then  it 
eats  our  fissures  and  we  become  very  diseased." 

"  Alcohaul  will  turn  the  skin  all  black  and  it 
•cleans  it  if  you  rub  it  hard  and  dont  take  none 
in  the  inside  of  you." 

But  perhaps  even  this  is  better  than  nothing, 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  training  in  temperance 
does,  in  some  schools,  produce  better  results. 
How  can  this  distressing  social  problem  be  set- 
tled save  through  education  ? 

"The  saloon  must  go,"  says  the  plain-speak- 
ing School  Journal^  "  and  teachers  should  say 
so.  But  some  say  the  saloon  is  not  arithmetic, 
grammar,  history,  or  geography  ;  what  business 
has  it  in  the  school-room  ?  It  is  just  the  place 
of  all  places  where  it  ought  to  be  discussed.  If  the 
men  of  to-day  demand  its  life,  we  must  train  up 
the  man  and  woman  of  to-morrow  to  demand 
its  death.  The  school-room  is  the  center  of  a 
mighty  power  that  should  be  used  for  the  regen- 
eration of  the  world." 

'*  There  is  no  side  of  the  intellect,"  says  Prof. 
Huxley,  '^  which  the  study  of  Physiology  does  not 
call  into  play  ;  no  region  of  human  knowledge 
into  which  either  its  roots  or  its  branches  do  not 
extend  ;  like  the  Atlantic  between  the  Old  and 
New  Worlds,  its  waves  wash  the  two  worlds  of 


io6  "  The    You  no;  Idea!' 

matter  and  of  mind,"  Neglect  of  this  study 
causes,  according  to  Charles  Kingsley,  an  almost 
endless  list  of  evils.  "  The  very  morals  will  suffer. 
From  ill-filled  lungs,  which  signify  ill-repaired 
blood,  arise  year  by  year  an  amount  not  merely 
of  disease,  but  of  folly,  temper,  laziness,  intem- 
perance, madness,  and  crime,  the  sum  of  which 
wall  never  be  known  till  that  great  day  when, 
men  shall  be  called  to  account  for  all  deeds  done 
in  the  body.  We  must  teach  men  that  they  are 
the  arbiters  of  their  own  destinies  and,  to  a  fear- 
fully great  degree,  of  their  children's  destinies 
after  them.  We  must  do  it  by  teaching  them 
sound  practical  science,  the  science  of  physi- 
ology as  applied  to  health.  So  and  so  only  can 
we  check  the  power  of  degradation  which  I  be- 
lieve to  be  surely  going  on,  not  merely  in  these 
islands,  but  in  every  civilized  community  in  the 
world  in  proportion  to  its  civilization.  Teach- 
ing of  this  kind  ought  to,  and  will,  in  some  more 
civilized  age  and  country,  be  held  a  necessary 
element  in  the  school  course  of  every  child." 

*'  Perhaps,"  says  Herbert  Spencer,  *'  nothing 
will  so  hasten  the  time  when  body  and  mind  will 
both  be  adequately  cared  for  as  the  belief  that 
the  preservation  of  health  is  a  duty.  Few  seem 
conscious  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  physical 
morality." 


"  The    Young  Idea''  107 

CHAPTER  IX. 

HANDS    AND    HEADS. 

^^  It  is  an  easy  thing  to  be  a  philosopher,  but  it  | 
is  hard  to  make  it  pay,"  says  the  Journal  of  \ 
Education^  recognizing  the  truth  of  the  words  of  | 
Novalis,  *'  Philosophy  will  bake  no  bread."  f 
Neither  will  it  earn  the. money  to  buy  the  fuel  to  J 
feed  the  fire  by  which  the  bread  is  baked.  ^ 

The  majority  of  the  graduates  of  our  public 
schools  stand  helplessly,  with  bewildered  eyes  and 
puzzled  brains,  upon  the  threshold  of  the  world's 
great  workshop,  asking  piteously  the  question, 
^'  Now,  what  shall  I  do  to  earn  my  living  ? "  and 
echo  immediately  and  sorrowfully  answers,  '^  I'm 
sure  I  haven't  the  least  idea." 

Truly,  the  life  is  more  than  meat,  and  the 
body  than  raiment,  but  no  matter  how  much 
we  may  affect  to  despise  this  tenement  of  clay 
and  its  material  requirements,  it  must  be  clothed, 
warmed,  and  nourished,  if  it  is  to  retain  its 
spiritual  and  immortal  guest  to  whom  we  accord 
glory  and  honor.  Bread  and  boots  and  blankets 
must  be  bought,  and  bought  with  money  which 
must  first  be  earned,  and  *'  it  is  always  the  ma- 
terial shoe  which  gives  the  hardest  pinch." 

Whether  or  not  life  is  worth  living,  is  a  ques- 
tion which  admits  of  discussion,  and  one  which 
must   be    settled   by   individual    opinion.     But 


io8  "  The    Young   Tdear 

given  existence,  desirable  or  otherwise,  it  needs 
no  argument  to  prove  that  there  are  but  three 
ways  of  sustaining  it — by  working,  begging,  or 
stealing. 

Fifty  years  ago  in  the  House  of  Commons,  a 
member   of  that  legislative   body  rose  excitedly 
with    these  words    upon  his    lips:  ''And   pray, 
what  do  you  propose    to   rear  your   youth  for  ? 
Why,  cotton-spinners  and  pin-makers,  or,  if  you 
like,  blacksmiths  and  mere  day-laborers.     These 
are  the  men  whom  you  are  to  teach  foreign  lan- 
guages, mathematics,  and  the  notation  of  music  ! 
Was  there  ever  anything  more  absurd  ?     It  really 
seems  as  if  God    hath    withdrawn    all   common 
3ense  from  this  house  !  " 
/      Dr.  J.  H.  Vincent  of  Chautauqua  follows  the 
/  indignant  Englishman  half  a  century  later  with 
^   the    words,  ''  If   I    want    my  boy   to   become  a 
')  blacksmith  I  would   let  him  go  through  college. 
No  man  has  a  right  to  be   merely  a  blacksmith. 
He  must  be  a  man  and  a  citizen." 

Says  Ascot  R.  Hope,  one  of  Great  Britain's 

most  prominent  educators,  "  If  you  train  your 

1  boy  to  be  a  grocer  and  nothing  else,  and  if  he 

I  turn  out  a  bad  grocer,  he  can  not  so  easily  take  to 

any  other  business  for  which  he  may  seem  more 

fit  ;  but  the  really  educated  man  is  more  likely 

to  be  at  home  in  any  occupation." 

j       One  of  the  most   far-sighted  and   progressive 

/  principals    in    the   third    city  of  the  Union  de- 

'^    clares,  ''  This  movement  for  industrial  education 


*^  The    Young  Idea.''  109 

is  right ;  it  commends  itself  to  the  common  sense 
of   thinking   men  ;  it   will    grandly  succeed  ;  it 
should  find  its  warmest  supporters  among  those 
who  know  best  the  deficiencies   of  our  present 
system — the  teachers.     The  days  of  fetichism  of 
books  and  of  mere  scholasticism  are  past.     It  is 
coming  to  be  recognized  that  the   man  who  can 
build   the    house,   the  engine,   the  factory;   who 
can  weave    the    fabric    of   silk,   or    cotton,    or 
wool  ;    who  can  fashion    iron   and    steel  into  a 
thousand  forms   of  use,   is  higher  than  the  man 
who   merely  keeps  the  books,  or  chronicles  the 
achievements  of  the  hand-workers.     In  the  days'\ 
of    general    ignorance    and    superstition,    when  | 
the  ability  to  read  and  write  made  one   eminent  i 
among    his   fellows,    the    relatively  learned,   too( 
frequently  by  playing  upon  the  fears  of  the  ig-( 
norant,  acquired  an  ascendancy  over  them.    This.,: 
state  of   things  is  passing  away.      The  light  of 
truth    is  spreading  ;    its    intense  brightness  will 
soon  irradiate  every  question    of   life  ;    wrongs 
hoary  with  age  shall  be  righted  ;  labor  will  have 
its  coronation;  let  us  hasten  the  day." 

Dr.  G.  Von  Taube,  of  the  Gramercy  Park 
Training  School,  speaks  as  one  having  authority; 
"  There  is  but  little  morality  in  misery,  and  if 
our  civilization  mast  condemn  a  vast  number  of 
our  population  to  a  lot  very  akin  to  slavery,  then, 
indeed,  it  is  a  failure.  Our  equality  is  a  bitter 
irony  if  no  chance  is  given  to  our  young  men  to  do 
their  best  in  life.     Knowledge  is  the  requirement 


tio  ^'  The   Yojuig  Idea'' 

for  it,  and  practical  knowledge,  too,  as  demanded 
in  our  times,  and  such  we  are  in  duty  bound  to 
give,  if  our  democratic  traditions  are  to  be  kept." 

John  Morley  had  a  word  to  say  on  this  sub- 
ject in  his  address  delivered  not  long  ago  before 
the  London  Society  for  the  Extension  of  Uni- 
versal Teaching  :  ''  The  end  of  education  is  to 
make  a  man,and  not  a  cyclopedia  ;  a  citizen,  and 
not  a  book  of  elegant  extracts.  Manual  train- 
flhg  is  of  use  as  an  aid  to  intellectual  activity  as 
la  harness  in  which  to  break  the  coltish  mind  to 
lapply  theory  in  practice.  The  industrial  pre- 
eminence of  England  is  at  stake  unless  scientific, 
commercial,  and  technical  education  is  pushed 
on  with  vigor." 

Prof.  C.  M.  Woodward,  Director  of  the  Man- 
ual Training  School  of  St.  Louis,  endorses  the 
idea  :  '*  Do  not  forget  that  the  pupil  has  hands 
as  well  as  eyes  and  ears.  The  general  introduc- 
tion into  our  public  schools  of  systematic  train- 
ing in  the  underlying  principles  of  the  handi- 
crafts, is  the  next  great  step  in  the  development 
of  our  educational  system.  Its  future  is,  I  be- 
lieve, firmly  bound  up  in  and^  dependent  upon 
tire  future  of  manual  training." 

In  an  address  before  the  American  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  in  August, 
1877,  Prof.  James  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania uttered  these  significant  words:  ''Yoke 
intelligence  and  reflection  to  the  homely  cart  of 
manual  labor,  and  the  interest  of  intelligent  and 


''The    Young  Idea:'  m 

reflecting  boys  will  be  arrested  and  permanently 
fixed.     Along    this    line    we    must    look    for  a 
gradual  elevation  in  the  social  tone  of  our  work- 
men.    It    will    assist    powerfully  in    developing 
intelligence    and    industrial   ability   which    now 
lies  dormant  in  thousands  of  our  children.     An*^ 
Edison,  a  Roebling,  a  Whitney,  a    Morse    might  f 
go  through  the  whole  curriculum  of  some  of  our  ) 
best  schools  and  find  absolutely  nothing   to   stir  | 
his  powers.     He  might,  and  probably  would   be,  v 
ranked  as  a  dullard."  s-*^ 

One  is  reminded  of  an   illustration   of  Henry 
Ward  Beech er's:    "  Men   are   often  like    knivesX 
with  many  blades.     They  know  how  to  open  onfe^ 
and  only  one.     The  rest  are  buried  in  the  handle, 
and   they   are  no  better   than   they  would  have 
been  if  they  had  been  made  w^ith  but  one  blade." 

Dr.  Parkhurst  declares,  "  Industrial  ignorance 
is  the  mother  of  idleness,  the  grandmother  of 
destitution,  the  great-grandmother  of  socialism 
and  nihilistic  discontent.  So  far  as  the  battle 
of  life  is  concerned,  to  train  children's  ideas 
without  training  their  fingers,  is  like  putting 
a  regiment  through  musket  drill  ;  it  is  healthy 
discipline  and  affords  pleasant  dress  parade,  but 
will  avail  little  before  the  enemy, unless  with  all 
their  other  acquirements  they  have  learned  to 
shoot." 

In  the  Century  for  November,  Col.  Richard 
T.  Auchmuty  writes  :  ^*  The  workmen  of  tlie 
future  must  learn  how  to  work  before  thev  seek 


112 


"  The   Young  Idea,'* 


V 


employment.     Ail    professional    men    do    this. 
What  scientific   schools  are  to  the  engineer  and 
/  architect,  what  the  law  school   and  the   medical 
'y  college   are  to   the  lawyer  and  the  physician,  or 
^what    the    business    college    is    to    the    clerk, 
f'\  trade  schools  must  be  to  the  future   mechanics," 
f    /  This  is  merely   a  recognition  of  the  fact  that, 
j/     the  apprentice  system  having  died  out,  something 
practical  must  be  found  to  supply  its  place  and 
to  accomplish  the  same  results.     We  are  called 
upon    to    adapt    our  schools  to  a  new  order  of 
things. 
^Sir  John  Lubbock  groans  :  '*  A  thousand  hours 
the  most  precious  seed-time  of  life  of  millions 
^of  children  spent  in  learning  that  /  must  follow 
e  in  conceive^  and  precede  it  in  believe  ;  that  two 
e's   must,  no  one  knows  why,  come  together  in 
proceed  and  exceed^  and  be  separated   in  preceae 
and  accede  J  that  uncle  must  be  spelled  with  a  ^, 
but  ankle  with  a  k^ — while  lessons  in  health  and 
thrift,  sewing   and  cooking,  which   should  make 
the  life  of  the   poor  tolerable,   and   elementary 
singing  and  drawing  which  should  make  it  pleas- 
ant, and  push  out  lower  and  degrading   amuse- 
ments, are  in  many  cases  almost  vainly  trying  to 
gain  admission." 

One  of  our  most  progressive  teachers  is  respon- 
sible for  this  utterance  :  *'  The  State  carries  on 
the  work  of  instruction  as  a  matter  of  policy 
and  economy.  The  results  which  follow  the 
vast    expenditures    are    far    from    satisfactory. 


*^  The    Young  Idea'*  113 

Observant  men  see  that  there  is  something  wrong. 
They  see  that  the  children  leave  the  schools  with 
an  abundance  of  useless  lore  " — (and  he  might 
have  added  that  they  do  not  retain  even  that 
very  long),  "  but  with  a  plentiful  lack  of  useful 
knowledge."     Is  not  this  a  self-evident  truth? 

Says  another  of  equal  eminence  :  '*  Ever  since 
the  time  that  illustrious  American  snatched  the 
lightning  from  the  clouds  and  made  it  obedient 
to  his  behests,  there  h^s  arisen  a  multitude  of 
discoverers  and  inventors  who  have  made  this 
country  and  this  age  the  most  noted  in  the 
annals  of  history.  In  this  intensely  practical 
age,  what  modifications  have  taken  place  in  the 
course  of  study  in  our  common  schools  ?  We 
are  still  pulling  to  pieces  the  beautiful  sentences 
of  Milton  and  Siakespeare,  forgetting  that  the 
building  up  process  is  of  infinitely  more  value 
to  the  student  than  the  pulling  down  of  any 
structure.  We  still  spend  too  much  time  in 
spelling  words,  the  meaning  of  which  children  do 
not  know.  Industrial  education  does  not  aim  at 
making  mechanics  of  all  the  boys,  nor  seam- 
stresses and  cooks  of  all  the  girls.  The  boy  or 
girl  who  has  the  opportunity  for  applying  the 
principles  which  belong  to  industrial  education 
will  not  only  learn  that  which  will  be  useful 
during  life,  but  will  acquire  will-power  over 
muscle  that  will  quicken  the  intellect." 

These  are  the  plain  words  of  an  instructor  of 
long  experience.  '*  What  shall  we  say  to  these 
things?" 


114  ^^  The    You7ig  I  dear 

Still  another  of  almost  equal  experience  adds 
his  testimony  : 

''  Industrial  education  will  cause  fewer  mis- 
takes to  be  made  in  the  choice  of  vocations. 
The  number  of  briefless  barristers  wall  be 
greatly  reduced  ;  fewer  disciples  of  Esculapius 
will  deal  drugs  and  death  around  the  tomb. 
There  will  be  a  reduction  in  the  ranks  of  those 
who  pound  rather  than  expound  sacred  texts. 
All  this  will  be  a  gain  and  a  glory  to  the  State." 

Says  Col.  Francis  W.  Parker,  "'  Manual  labor 
is  the  foundation  of  clear  thinking,  sound  imag- 
ination, and  good  health.  If  you  would  develop 
morality  in  a  child,  train  him  to  work."  And  Sir 
Philip  Magnus,  *'To  assume  that  the  best  edu- 
cation can  be  given  through  the  medium  of 
books  only,  is  a  survival  of  the  medievalism 
against  which  nearly  all  educational  authorities 
protest." 

Dr.  Nicholas  Murray  Butler  of  Columbia  Col- 
lege, President  of  the  New  York  Industrial 
Association,  is  one  of  our  most  cultured  and 
clear-seeing  educators.  In  an  address  before 
the  National  Education  Association  at  Washing- 
ton, February,  1888,  he  said,  among  other 
pertinent  things  :  "  This  -subject  is  too  impor- 
tant and  too  pressing  to  permit  us  to  spend 
time  in  wandering  off  to  fight  duels  with  * 
windmills.  Manual  training  cannot  be  treated 
as  an  annex  or  appendix  to  the  traditional  course 
of  study.     It  does   not  claim    admittance  as  a 


'^  llie   Young  Idea.'*  115 

favor,  it  demands  it  as  a  right.  The  future 
course  of  study  will  not  be  a  Procrustean  struc- 
ture, absolutely  and  un(|iialifiedly  alike  for  all 
localities  and  for  all  schools,  but  it  will  have  in 
it  a  principle,  and  that  principle  will  be  founded 
on  a  scientific  basis  ;  the  highest  duty  of  the 
educator  will  be  its  application  to  his  own  par- 
ticular needs  and  demands." 

Teachers  find  that  to  many  children  nothing 
proves  more  discourag'ing  than  failure  to  realize 
that  their  school-work  counts  for  something.  All 
knowledge  must  be  a  sort  of  abstract  and 
intangible  possession  to  the  child,  unless  he 
can  in  some  way  make  practical  application 
of  it.  The  constant  writing  of  figures  and 
sentences  which  are  as  constantly  rubbed  out 
again,  gives  the  child  a  depre'ssing  sense  of  doing 
a  vast  amount  of  work  with  nothing  in  the  world 
to  show  for  it. 

''  Is  your  object  to  fit  pupils  for  certain  trades  ? " 
asked  a  reporter  of  Prof.  Leipziger,  of  the  He- 
brew Technical  Institute,  New  York.  *'Our 
object  is  to  educate,''  was  the  emphatic  answer. 
*'  Hand-work  cultivates  observation,  judgment, 
and  a  taste  for  exactness  which  has  a  final 
result  in  morality.  If  a  boy  parses  a  sentence 
incorrectly  he  forgets  all  his  mistakes  in  a 
few  minutes,  but  if  he  makes  an  error  in 
wood-carving  it  annoys  him  every  time  he 
looks  at  it.  If  he  likes  mechanics,  he  must 
necessarily    learn      mathematics    and     science. 


ii6  ''  The    Young  Idea:' 

Even  if  one  clings  to  the  old  idea  that  education 
is  the  gaining  of  knowledge,  the  industrial 
method  is  the  best.  Instead  of  tiying  to  give  a 
boy  an  idea  of  a  cube  by  an  elaborate  definition 
set  him  to  draw  one  or  make  one  out  of  paper, 
and  he'll  know  forevermore  just  what  a  cube  is." 
Is  there  any  terrible  heresy  in  such  doctrine  as 
this?  ^'Nine-tenths  of  the  work  done  in  this 
world  is  hand-work,  but  all  of  our  effort  in  educa- 
tion so  far  has  been  to  teach  peojle  to  live  with- 
out working  with  their  hands."  Oh,  tremendous 
and  tlirilling  truth,  to  which  so  many  of  our 
lamentable  social  conditions  bear  abundant  and 
heartbreaking  testimony  ! 

In  his  address  before  the  Industrial  Education 
Association  of  New  York,  Gen.  Francis  A. 
Walker  enunciated  these  stirring  truths  :  "  The 
introduction  of  shop  work  into  the  public  system 
of  education  cannot  fail  to  have  a  most  benefi- 
cial influence  in  promoting  a  respect  for  labor, 
and  in  overcoming  the  false  and  pernicious  pas- 
sion of  our  young  people  for  crowding  them- 
selves into  overdone  and  underpaid  depart- 
ments where  they  may  escape  manual  exertion. 
Helplessness  and  thriftlessness  recruit  the  ranks 
of  the  vicious  and  depraved,  and  mock  the  ef- 
forts of  both  philanthropy  and  criminal  law  to  sup- 
press them.  What  may  education  do  toward  re- 
moving these  twin  evils  of  society,  the  source  of 
poverty,  degradation,  and  crime  ?  Is  there  hope 
through  the  schools  ?  "     And  we  find  ourselves 


**  The    Young  Idea'*  117 

face  to  face  with  the  solemn  fact  that  if  there  is 
no  hope  in  our  schools  there  is  no  hope  anywhere. 

This  scorn  of  kibor  is  one  of  the  greatest 
evils  of  our  day.  We  are  coming  by  degrees, 
however,  to  feel  considerable  respect  for  work, 
and  even  in  some  slight  degree,  for  work 
done  with  the  hands  and  in  the  sweat  of  the 
face.  The  beneficial  and  magnificent  results 
which  have  been  developed  in  nearly  all  the 
mechanical  arts  have'  compelled  us  in  many 
cases  to  do  homage  to  the  skilled  workman, 
though  he  is  working  for  day's  wages.  Still  we 
are  a  long  way  from  that  measure  of  respect  and 
appreciation  which  should  be  accorded  to  all 
honest  industry.  We  are  not  yet  entirely  be- 
yond resentment  at  Lincoln's  answer  to  the 
question  of  the  astonished  foreigner,  ^*  Do  you 
black  your  own  boots  ?  "  ^*  Why,  yes,  whose 
boots  should  I  black  ? "  nor  do  we  wonder 
at  the  foreigner's  surprise.  It  has  taken  many 
years  for  us  to  reach  a  practical  belief  in  the 
doctrine  of  equality  taught  by  Robert  Burns,  so 
delightedly  accepted  in  poetry,  so  reluctantly 
applied  to  life. 

The  future  salvation  of  this  country  is  wrapped 
up  in  the  successful  solution  of  many  great 
problems,  not  one  of  which  is  more  important 
than  that  of  the  dignity,  the  value,  the  rights  of 
labor.  ''Labor  is  coming  to  the  front,"  says 
Powderly,  "  and  the  man  in  the  paper  cap  must 
take    his  place    in   the    profession  ";  unless    we 


ii8  ''  77/6'    Young  Idea.''' 

graciously  make  an  entrance  for  him,  he  will 
force  one  for  himself,  perhaps  by  methods  of 
which  we  cannot  quite  approve.  The  helpless 
housekeepers  of  the  country  can  best  tell  what 
dangers  threaten  our  national  home  life.  For 
the  simplest  domestic  service  they  must  depend 
upon  a  horde  of  ignorant  foreign  servants, 
while  our  American  girls,  educated  in  our  public 
schools,  starve  slowly  in  daily  factories  and 
nightly  garrets.  The  false  education  of  each 
class  reacts  on  the  other  to  the  immense  injury 
of  both,  giving  to  the  student  of  social  econ- 
omy a  problem  for  which  there  can  be  found  no 
easy  solution.  Yet  solved  it  must  be,  and  in 
some  practical  fashion,  if  our  country's  future 
welfare  is  to  be  in  any  manner  dependent  upon 
its  social  and  domestic  life. 

What  is  the  reason  for  the  existence  of  so 
many  trade  schools,  art  schools,  cooking  schools, 
and  business  colleges  all  over  the  country,  if  it 
is  not  because  of  the  failure  of  the  common 
schools  to  prepare  our  young  men  and  women 
for  the  practical  work  of  life  waiting  to  be  done, 
and  which  they  are  obliged  to  do  in  self-defense  ? 
No  one  denies  the  need  of  thorough  education 
for  the  brain  ;  but  the  head  can  not  truly  say  to 
the  hand,  '*  I  have  no  need  of  thee." 

*'  I  advise  all  parents  to  have  their  boys  and 
girls  taught  short-hand  writing  and  type-writing," 
said  Charles  Reade.  "  A  short-hand  writer  who 
can  type-write  his  notes  will  be  safer  from  poverty 


"  The    Young  Idcay  119 

than  a  great  Greek  scholar."  But  even  he  would 
not  have  said  that  a  man  would  run  his  Reming- 
ton any  less  successfully  for  being  able  to  read 
Aristophanes  in  the  original. 

But  the  question  is  reasonably  asked,  How, 
in  the  already  over-crowded  condition  of  the 
course  of  study,  can  time  be  found  for  the  pro- 
posed additional  work  ?  If,  as  a  Brooklyn 
principal  asserts,  "  In  no  work  to-day  is  there  so 
much  quackery  as  in  the  so-called  educational 
work  of  the  schools,  public  and  private  alike," 
then  surely  the  matter  resolves  itself  into  a  sim- 
ple getting  rid  of  the  quackery  in  order  to  adopt 
something  genuine  and  profitable  in  its  place. 
This  will  certainly  prove  a  lightening  of  the 
load  instead  of  an  addition  to  it. 

Professor  Thomas  Davidson  is  explicit  in  his 
method  for  securing  the  necessary  time.  *'  Let  us 
do  away  with  what  is  nonsensical  and  hurtful  in 
our  present  courses,  and  plenty  of  time  will  be 
left  for  all  the  manual  training  that  is  desirable. 
Do  away,  for  example,  with  a  great  deal  of  the 
arithmetic,  a  great  deal  of  the  formal  grammar, 
the  whole  of  the  elocutionary  reading,  that  are 
now  taught.  Above  all,  do  away  with  the  whole 
wicked  system  of  school  exhibitions,  which  not 
only  waste  valuable  time,  but  teach  so  many  evil 
lessons  of  vanity,  envy,  selfishness,  and  whose 
cheap,  vulgar  applause  so  tends  to  unfit  young 
people  for  the  sober,  unapplauded  duties  of  real 
life." 


I20  *'  The    Young  Idea.''* 

"  There  is  nothing  so  terrible,"  says  Goethe, 
"as  activity  without  insight."  If  there  were 
nothing  but  theory  on  which  to  base  these  claims 
for  a  change  in  our  school  system,  then  indeed 
we  might  hesitate  before  making  any  attempts 
at  change.  But  these  theories  have  been  prac- 
tically applied  and  tested  in  numerous  places 
where  experiments  could  be  safely  made.  The 
result  in  every  case  has  been  successful. 

H.  W.  Compton  writes  from  the  Training 
School  of  Toledo,  Ohio:  "  Boys  and  girls  pass  from 
their  algebra  and  history  to  their  drawing,  and 
from  these  again  to  their  geometry  and  litera- 
ture with  a  hearty  zest  for  all.  All  the  pupils 
show  the  greatest  interest  and  enthusiasm  in  the 
work.  The  boys  do  not  want  any  better  holi- 
day than  to  work  in  the  shops.  The  opposition 
to  manual  training  rises  largely  from  the  lament- 
able ignorance  which  prevails  concerning  its 
aims  and  results.  It  dignifies  and  exalts  labor, 
and  teaches  respect  for  the  laboring  man.  It 
teaches  no  special  trade,  and  yet  lays  the  foun- 
dation for  any  trade  and  gives  the  youth  such 
knowledge  and  skill  that  he  becomes  a  better 
and  sounder  judge  of  men  and  things  in  what- 
ever business  or  profession  he  may  engage." 
So  is  the  tree  known  by  its  fruits,  and  we  recog- 
nize with  Whittier  that — 

"  On  the  ladder  of  God  which  upward  leads 
The  steps  of  progress  arc  human  needs." 


''  The    Young  Idea.'"  121 

CHAPTER   X. 

"  SENATORS  SWEAR." 

"  If  ever  a  country  was  in  danger  of  dying  of 
dyspepsia,  ours  is,"  says  Dr.  Parkhurst.  "An 
adult  foreigner  is  not  easily  masticated,  sali- 
vated, and  digested.  Qur  hopes  must  center  in 
the  children.  The  school  is  the  national  stom- 
ach. Our  public  schools  must  be  the  nurseries 
of  young  patriots  ;  they  are  our  best  American- 
izing machinery." 

Says  George  Stuart,  of  the  Philadelphia 
High  School  :  "  The  efficiency  of  the  American 
public  school  in  training  for  citizenship,  is 
likely  to  be  severely  tested  in  the  near  future. 
Recently  there  has  appeared  in  our  midst 
an  element  peculiarly  alien  in  race  and  sym- 
pathies, or  revolutionary  in  tendencies,  and 
in  numbers  sufficiently  large  to  disturb  the 
calm  future  of  our  social  forms  and  the  settled 
traditions  of  centuries.  Against  the  subversive 
influence  of  this  element  our  common  school  is 
a  tower  of  strength,  and  civics,  as  a  branch  of 
instruction,  assumes  paramount  importance." 

*'  What  is  in  store  for  the  children  of  to-day's 
voters?"  inquires  Frances  C.  Sparhawk  in  Edu- 
cation. *'  We  have  thrown  open  our  doors  to  the 
world  ;  the  world  has  come  ;  what  are  we  going 
to  do  with  it .?      New  elements  of  danger  are  to 


122  ''  The    Young  Idea'' 

be  met;  we  have  formerly  had  to  Americanize 
individuals  ;  now  we  must  Americanize  organi- 
zations." 

"  Republics,"  says  Senator  Stewart  of  Nevada, 
^'  have  seldom  perished  by  the  sword.  They 
have  always  bred  a  race  of  warriors,  willing  and 
capable  of  vanquishing  every  foe  except  igno- 
rance among  the  masses.  By  that  fatal  enemy 
all  the  republics  of  ancient  times  were  destroyed. 
The  masses  became  incapable  of  conducting  the 
complicated  machinery  of  government  necessary 
in  a  republic."  If  ignorance  can  kill  our  repub- 
lic as  it  did  those  of  the  past,  there  is  surely 
something  to  fear  in  certain  facts  set  forth  by 
Rev.  Joseph  Cook  :  ^'  Of  the  ten  million  actual 
voters  in  the  United  States,  two  million  cannot 
write  their  names.  There  are  at  least  two  mil- 
lion voters  who  are  not  classified  as  illiterates, 
and  yet  do  not  know  enough  to  cast  an  intelli- 
gent vote.  The  whiskey  rings  own  more  prop- 
erty than  the  slave-holders  ever  did.  It  is  what  I 
call  the  grip  of  ruin  on  the  throat  of  this  nation. 
Unloose  it  !  Deliver  America  from  the  bondage 
of  ignorance.  That  should  be  the  supreme 
watchword  of  the  hour." 

Lord  Bacon  declared,  '*  There  is  no  greater 
work  for  any  man  than  the  founding  of  states." 
But  how  about  the  work  of  preserving  and  im- 
proving those  already  founded  ? 

' '  A  thousand  years  scarce  serves  to  form  a  state , 
An  hour  may  lay  it  in  the  dust." 


"  The   Young  Idea''  123 

Sydney  Smith  has  said,  "  It  would  seem  that 
the  science  of  government  is  an  unappropriated 
region  in  the  university  of  knowledge,"  but  Syd- 
ney Smith  lived  years  before  we  were  given  an 
explanation  of  the  fact  : 

"  The  science  of  government  is  so  very  great 
of  a  strane  on  the  mind  that  the  mind  of  a  man 
is  not  culpable  of  concieving  and  carrying  out  a 
science  of  government." 

Still  the  young  minds  have  some  ideas  con- 
cerning the  chief  executive  and  a  certain  legis- 
lative body. 

"  The  President  is  settled  by  a  trety." 

''  When  the  President  is  tired  the  chief  justice 
shall  preside." 

^'  The  president  heads  all  the  armys  and  navys 
of  the  United  States  and  makes  them  move 
round." 

'^  Congress  can  raise  money  by  appropriat- 
ing it." 

"  Congress  shall  borrow  and  spend  all  the 
money  of  the  people." 

"  Congress  has  no  power  over  any  Indian 
tribes  now  living." 

^'  Congress  can  commit  pirates  to  the  high 
seas." 

**  Congress  has  power  to  determine  what  crimes 
shall  be  committed." 

"The  duration  of  the  Session  of  Congress  de- 
pends upon  when  the  President  takes  his  pleas- 
ure and  two  houses  cannot  agree." 


124  ''  The    Young  Idea'' 

''  There  must  be  three  reading  lessons  in  Con- 
gress on  a  Bill  before  it  finally  passes  away." 

'*  Treason  is  defied  by  the  Constitution  and 
punished  by  Congress." 

To  fire  off  crackers  on  the  Fourth  of  July — 
and  fire  a  few  houses  at  the  same  time  ;  to  float 
a  flag  from  the  front  window  on  the  twenty-sec- 
ond of  February,  and  hurrah  for  the  regiment 
that  marches  through  the  city  on  Decoration 
Day, — have  not  the  American  people  plenty  of 
patriotism  and  public  spirit,  with  speeches,  con- 
flagrations, explosions,  and  congratulations,  all 
along  the  line  ? 

The  average  respectable  American  citizen 
believes  theoretically  in  a  republican  form  of 
government,  and  if  it  were  threatened  would  in- 
stantly cry,  ^^The  Union  must  and  shall  be  pre- 
served !  "  But  how  does  he  prove  his  devotion  ? 
Doubtless,  like  Artemus  Ward,  he  would  willingly 
sacrifice  all  his  wife's  relations  if  danger  threat- 
ened his  beloved  country ;  but  in  many  cases 
he  will  not  take  the  trouble  even  to  cast  a  ballot 
which  might  help  to  avert  all  danger. 

Plato  says  that  the  punishment  which  the  wise 
man  suffers  who  refuses  to  take  part  in  the  gov- 
ernment is  to  live  under  the  government  of  worse 
men.  But  did  any  wise  man  ever  so  refuse,  or, 
refusing,  did  he  not  fairly  forfeit  the  claim  to  be 
called  wise  ? 

What  will  be  the  outcome — what  is  it  already — 
of  this  "masterly  inactivity"  on  the  part  of  re- 


''The    Young  Idea:'  125 

sponsible  citizens  ?  Vide  the  official  corruption 
of  a  body  of  public  servants  in  the  largest  city 
in  the  Union,  exposed,  as  is  a  hole  in  the  ground 
when  the  covering  stone  is  displaced,  and  re- 
vealing the  crawling  creatures  within  it  trying  to 
escape  in  every  direction  (scurrying  to  Canada, 
to  England,  to  the  grave,  while  a  few  of  them 
accidentally  find  their  way  into  State  prisons)  ; 
the  capitol  of  the  Empire  State,  erected  a  few 
years  ago  at  a  cost  of  seventeen  millions  of 
dollars,  daily  threatening  to  tumble  down  on 
the  heads  of  the  astute  legislators,  and,  in  the 
educational  world,  the  College  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  which  graduates  the  enormous  num- 
ber of  forty  students  a  year  at  the  slight  cost  of 
one  hundred  and  forty  thousand  dollars,  re- 
paired in  1886,  and  just  one  year  later  found  to 
be  in  need  of  further  repairs  to  the  extent  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty-six  thousand  dollars. 
But  why  name  instances  of  official  iniquity  in 
order  to  prove  its  universal  existence  ?  There 
is  no  need  to  demonstrate  that  water  runs  down- 
hill. There  is  not  an  intelligent  boy  twelve 
years  old  in  any  intelligent  family  in  the  coun- 
try who  does  not  understand,  in  a  general  way, 
at  least,  the  sore  straits  into  which  the  country 
has  been  drifting. 

**  In  that  elder  day 
To  be  a  Roman  was  greater  than  a  king." 

and  there  was  a  time  when  to  be  a  native  of  this 
""  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave  " 
was  not  much  less  of  a  distinction.     But  now  ? 


126  "  The   Young  Idear 

'*  ^  Mamma,  Mary  says  her  father  is  an  Irish- 
American,  and  she's  awfully  stuck  up  about  it.' 

"  '  Well  ? ' 

"  '  And  Gretchen  says  her  father  is  a  German- 
American,  and  she's  awfully  stuck  up  too.' 

^'*Yes.' 

*'  *  And  Marie  is  bragging  because  her  father 
is  a  French-  American,' 

*' '  I  can't  help  it,  dear.* 

*'  '  But  isn't  there  something  I  can  brag  of? ' 

^'  No,  pet  ;  you  are  only  an  American.'  " 

Considerable  instruction  in  Civil  Government 
is  already  given  in  our  schools,  this  particular 
tree  of  knowledge  occasionally  bearing  most 
astonishing  fruit: 

*'  We  have  not  had  any  good  government  since 
the  declaration  of  independence." 

''  The  Revolutionary  War  was  begun  in  1775, 
and  has  continued  all  this  time." 

"'  No  free  government  can  exist  unless  its 
powers  are  discharged  on  earth." 

"When  territory  is  found  uninhabited  by  new 
settlements,  you  take  the  laws  of  the  country"; 
but  not  a  word  of  explanation  is  offered  as  to 
what  you  are  expected  to  do  with  tliem. 

"  The  Federal  government  grew  out  of  several 
States.  It  has  three  states.  Legislature,  execu- 
tive, and  judicial." 

"  The  Constitution  should  be  the  law  of  the 
country  and  be  violated." 

"  No  soldier  shall  be  quartered  anywhere  in 


"  The    Young  I  dear  127 

the  United  States  without  the  consent  of  the 
owner." 

*'  No  person  shall  be  convinced  of  treason 
unless  he  has  done  it  to  two  witnesses  in  open 
court." 

^'  The  presedent  cannot  draw  any  salary 
during  any  term  of  office." 

'*  Electors  are  chosen  by  people." 

'^  Electors  meet  to  cast  their  votes  at  each 
place  in  the  State  that  is  the  capital  of  the  legis- 
lature." 

But  the  ''qualifications  to  be  a  president  "  are 
still  more  surprising  : 

'*  The  constitution  is  35  years,  he  shall  be 
a  natural  born  citizen  of  the  United  States,  he 
shall  have  been  president  of  the  United  States 
fourteen  years  prior  to  taking  a  seat." 

*'  An  absolute  monarch  makes  the  caprice  of 
his  own  will  but  a  democrat  government  is  when 
the  democrats  are  a  select  body  of  men  and 
there  elected  by  the  people  and  use  their  voices 
in  making  the  laws." 

''  In  nearly  all  the  states  judicial  officers  should 
be  impeached."  Perhaps  in  the  words  of  Capt. 
Cuttle,  "'  The  bearing  of  this  obserwation  lies  in 
the  application  of  it." 

''  The  House  of  Representatives  shall  have  sole 
power  of  impeaching  a  speaker." 

''  On  taking  their  seats  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives swear." 

"  No  person  shall  be  a  Senator  who  has  not 


128  "  The    Young  Idea^ 

attained  the  age  of  9  years  and  been  a  resident 
of  the  country  30  years." 

"  If  the  President  dies  the  Vice  President  has 
got  to  devolve  his  duties,"  and 

*^  The  Vice  President  shall  be  President  of 
the  Senate  and  be  equally  divided,"  after  which 
operation  it  is  possible,  to  quote  Sam  Weller, 
**  His  most  formiliar  friends  voodn't  know  him." 

This  sort  of  instruction  probably  does  no 
harm,  though  it  reminds  one  of  the  remark  made 
by  the  blacksmith  who  unresistingly  bore  the 
chastisement  inflicted  by  his  wife,  ^'  It  don't  hurt 
me  none,  and  it  does  her  a  heap  o'  good."  Some- 
body, no  doubt,  feels  more  comfortable  to  know 
that  political  education  is  not  entirely  neglected 
by  the  system  ;  but  well  as  it  may  be  attended  to, 
is  there  not  a  better  way  still, — the  preaching 
of  a  living  gospel  instead  of  the  repetition  of 
dead  words?  Character,  honesty,  moral  princi- 
ple, recognition  of  duty,  a  sense  of  responsibil- 
ity, all  the  qualities  of  manhood  most  needed  in 
our  electors,  senators,  and  public  officers, — why 
is  not  the  development  of  an  appreciation  for 
these  things  quite  as  profitable  as  definitions  and 
technicalities,  which  to  the  children  learning 
them  are  again  nothing  but  *'  words,  words, 
words  "?  There  is  great  danger  ahead  if  there 
is  truth  in  this  eloquent  disquisition  of  a  young 
writer  on  the  subject  of  our  national  life  : 

"  And  to-day  we  sail  beneath  the  clear  sky  of 
concord  hurled  the  orators  upon  a  creasted  w^ave 


"  The    Vormg  Idea''  129 

of  life  without  a  compass  or  rudder  for  whenever 
the  pillars  which  support  a  national  edifice  of  its 
massive  columns  are  undermined  and  prostrated 
the  whole  fabric  of  national  freedom  will  be 
crushed  in  ruin." 

One  hope  only  is  held  out  to  us ;  *'  The 
United  States  shall  not  be  put  into  slavery  or 
subject  to  its  jurisdiction." 

It  was  Garfield  who  said/'  Our  national  safety 
demands  that  the  fountains  of  political  power 
shall  be  made  pure  by  intelligence  and  kept  pure 
by  vigilance."  Evidently  there  is  something  to 
be  done,  and  there  must  be  found  some  way  of 
doing  it  if  the  Republic  upon  which  we  pride  our- 
selves is  to  remain  a  thing  to  be  proud  of.  This 
fact  is  forced  upon  us  in  many  ways,  but  most 
painfully  of  all  in  the  statement  made  by  a 
young  student  of  political  economy :  ''  So  reck- 
less has  our  Legislator  become  that  our  political 
institutions  will  soon  be  all  crumbs." 

''  Many  people,"  writes  a  wise  student  of 
political  economy,  "  are  not  conscious  of  receiving 
benefits  from  the  existence  of  government.  In 
orderly  communities  the  influence  of  government 
is  like  that  of  the  atmosphere,  all  embracing,  but 
silent.  This  in  part  explains  the  smuggling  and 
tax  dodging  by  respectable  people.  In  this 
popular  ignorance  lies  the  necessity  for  school 
instruction.  All  teaching  of  civics  must  found 
itself  upon  the  necessity  of  government  and  the 
essential  beneficence  of  its  operations." 


130  "  The    Young  Idea:' 

Says  Prof.  Charles  D.  Marx  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity, **  For  the  great  questions  of  national  life 
staring  us  in  the  face  to-day,  we  find  no  answers 
in  antiquity.  Compulsory  education,  care  of 
commerce  and  industry,  agriculture  and  internal 
communication,  colonial  and  social  politics — 
these  are  definitions  and  prol^lems  which  have 
sprouted  in  the  soil  of  modern  times." 

''What  then,"  asks  Thomas  P.  Ballard  of 
Ohio,  "  is  to  be  the  permanent  and  practical  re- 
lation of  our  common  schools  to  the  civil  service 
of  the  future  ?  It  is  plain  that  the  function  uf 
the  teacher  in  the  eye  of  the  State  must  be  direct- 
ed to  laying  the  foundations  for  citizenship,  a 
training  broad  enough  to  include  the  physique, 
the  intellect,  the  entire  character  of  the  people. 
The  momentous  question  is  how  to  train  the 
American  citizen  for  the  great  duties  and  proba- 
bilities of  the  future.  The  State,  through  the 
schools,  must  do  its  utmost.  The  entire  work  of 
education  must  converge  to  this  great  end. 
Civil  service  reform  should  pre-eminently  com- 
mand the  support  of  our  school  men." 

In  the  words  of  Prof.  Hewitt  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity, ''When  the  system  of  our  public  service 
shall  be  perfected  so  that  the  people  demand 
special  fitness  in  their  public  servants,  we  shall 
see  public  employment  an  honorable  ambition, 
and  education,  both  primary  and  advanced,  re- 
cognizing a  new  province  of  work  in  preparing 
students  for  the  public  service."  In  that  happy 
day  may  come  to  pass  what  is  written. 


''  The   Young  Idea:'  13^ 

"  Tenure  of  office  depends  on  everybody's 
good  behavior." 

In  our  day  General  Grant  has  said,  ''  The 
free  school  is  the  promoter  of  that  intelligence 
which  is  to  preserve  us  a  free  nation,"  and  Hon. 
George  S.  Boutwell,  *'  Liberty  can  never  die  in 
the  presence  of  a  people  universally  and  thor- 
oughly educated."  Yet  between  1870  and  1880 
there  was  an  increase  of  two  million  illiterates 
in  this  country,  while  it  is  estimated  that  by 
June,  1888,  the  money  lying  idle  in  the  Treasury 
of  the  United  States  will  reach  the  sum  of  one 
hundred  and  forty  million  dollars. 

^'  Only  great  objects  can  worthily  occupy  a 
boy's  heart,"  says  the  great  Richter,  "  and  what 
except  knowledge  can  fill  it  better  than  his  love 
of  country?  This  holy  flame  should  be  fanned 
in  all  schools." 

^'  But  what  can  we  do  with  these  great  subjects 
in  the  primary  school  ?  "  asks  one  of  our  Massa- 
chusetts educators.  "Everything!  Born  under 
the  American  flag,  if  by  the  age  often  the  child's 
eye  has  not  learned  to  kindle  and  his  heart  to 
thrill  at  the  sight  of  the  stars  and  stripes  there 
is  little  hope  of  patriotism." 

Prof.  Wm.  T.  Harris  asserts  :  '*  The  conscious- 
ness of  belonging  to  a  nation  acts  and  reacts 
constantly  on  one's  character.  To  belong  to  a 
noble  nation  like  Great  Britain  or  the  United 
States  strengthens  the  spiritual  backbone.  The 
English  backbone  is  eight  hundred  years  long 


132  "  The   Young  Idea'' 

and  thick  in  proportion.  To  be  a  Roman  citizen 
in  the  time  of  the  Caesars, — we  know  what  that 
meant." 

Says  Prof.  Vose,  apropos  of  the  study  of  civics 
in  our  schools  :  '^  The  signs  of  the  times  are  un- 
mistakable. The  work  may  go  hard  for  awhile 
and  we  may  have  to  employ  some  crude  alterna- 
tives for  true  methods.  But  true  methods 
will  come  in  due  time";  for,  as  Carlyle  declares, 
"  as  soon  as  men  get  to  discern  the  importance  of 
a  thing,  they  do  infallibly  set  about  arranging, 
facilitating,  forwarding  it,  and  rest  not  till  in 
some  approximate  degree  they  have  accom- 
plished it." 


CHAPTER  XL 
"no  pesky  palion." 

"  I  AiNT  goin'  to  be  no  Pesky  Palion  I  don't 
care  what  he  says." 

*'  I'd  rather  be  a  Piscopalyan  than  a  shoutin' 
Methodis,  any  how." 

*' Who's  said  anything  about  shoutin'  Metho- 
dis ?  " 

"  My  mother  says  your  mother's  one.  She 
says  they  jest  groan  an'  holler  an'  scream  down 
to  your  church." 

'*  Well,  my  father  says   your    father's  nothin* 


'*  The    Young  Idea'*  133 

but   a   scaly  Demercrat,  an'  that's  a  good  deal 
wuss  than  a  Methodis,  anyhow." 

Here  a  bigger  boy  interfered  to  prevent  blows 
from  the  clenched  fists: 

^'  You  better  look  out,  you  two.  Whadder 
you  know  about  it  ?  Better  go  off  and  play 
marbles." 

This  short  but  significant  conversation  was  the 
result  of  a  little  *'  religious  training,"  which  the 
''  high  church"  principal  had  seen  fit  to  give  the 
pupils  one  Friday  afternoon.  The  relative 
claims  of  creeds  is  seldom  a  subject  of  contro- 
versy among  twelve-year-old  schoolboys,  but 
similar  comparisons  have  characterized  every 
phase  of  religious  agitation  since  men  grew  wise 
enough  to  quarrel  with  their  brains  as  well  as 
with  their  clubs. 

Nearly  three  years  ago  President  Seelye  of 
Amherst  College  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  the 
discussion  of  religious  education  by  his  question 
in  the  Forum^  ^'  Is  there  any  reason  why  we 
should  teach  the  life  of  Julius  Caesar  in  our  schools 
and  not  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  "  It  was  the 
cause  of  much  spirited  controversy  which  waxes 
warmer  every  day,  and  in  the  same  publication 
for  January,  1888,  Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage  of  Bos- 
ton truly  says,  *'  Circumstances  are  just  now 
pushing  the  moral  and  religious  side  of  the 
school  question  to  the  front,  and  it  must  soon 
be  dealt  with  in  some  practical  way." 
^      Dr.  Seelye  claims  that  '^  the  State  should  pro- 


134  *'  The    Young  Idea.'' 

vide  religious  instruction  for  its  own  preserva- 
tion." Dr.  Savage  replies:  *'It  is  none  of  the 
State's  business  to  establish  an  insurance  bureau 
for  the  safety  of  souls  after  they  have  passed 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  State's  jurisdiction. 
The  State  is  vitally  interested  in  the  morality  of 
its  citizens,  but  as  a  State  it  can  have  no  interest 
whatever  in  the  question  as  to  what  their  relig- 
ion is  or  whether  they  have  any  at  all.  There 
is  even  a  touch  of  the  absurd  in  a  man's  asking  a 
share  of  the  public  money  to  pay  for  the  work  of 
saving  his  child's  soul  in  some  other  world." 

Rev.  Edward  L.  Neill  said  recently  before  the 
Minnesota  State  Teachers'  Association,  '^  Schools 
are  not  intended  to  teach  religion.  The  common 
schools  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  other  world 
or  in  preparing  the  scholars  for  heaven."  Dr.  Nor- 
man Macleod  declares  with  unmistakable  empha- 
sis, *'  The  longer  I  live  the  more  am  I  convinced 
that  the  more  perfect  the  government,  the  less 
it  should  interfere  with  religion.  If  men  won't 
do  right  because  it  is  right,  what  is  the  good  of 
it  ?     Give  me  freedom  with  all  its  risks." 

Thus  radically  do  individuals— men  eminent 
for  their  intellectual  ability  and  moral  character, 
Christian  ministers  even, — differ  concerning  this 
latter-day  problem. 

Some  one  has  answered  the  famous  question 
asked  by  Dr.  Seelye  by  saying  that  there  could 
be  no  possible  objection  to  teaching  the  life  of 
Jesus  Christ  as  well  as  that  of  Julius  Csesar,  pro-  ^ 


"  The    Young  Idea.''  135 

vided  it  could  be  taught  in  the  same  way.  But 
it  is  just  here  that  the  difficulty  arises.  The 
instant  that  the  divinity  of  Christ  is  asserted  by 
his  followers,  a  host  of  the  '^  unregenerate,"  as 
the  word  is  theologically  used,  arise  to  combat 
the  notion,  and  trouble  promptly  begins. 

The  philosopher  Kant  considered  morality  and 
religion  as  identical,  and  the  evangelical  church 
accepts  his  decision.  But  setting  aside  all  theo- 
logical and  technical  terms,  all  shades  of  doctrine, 
all  limitations  of  creeds  and  denominations,  we 
must  concede  that  whether  or  not  we  can  have 
morality  without  religion,  it  is  very  sure  that  we 
can  have  no  religion  without  morality,  any  more 
than  we  can  have  a  train  of  cars  without  a  railroad. 

But  to  quote  again  from  Dr.  Savage,  **  If  reli- 
gion is  absolutely  essential  to  morality,  we  cannot 
leave  the  matter  all  in  the  air.  We  must  go  on 
and  ask,  what  religion  ? — whose  religion  ?  Are 
not  justice  and  fair  play  not  only  qualities  of  all 
true  Americans,  but  some  small  part  at  least  of 
all  decent  religions  ?  There  are  moral  men  in 
all  religions,  and  with  no  religion, — ^as  that  word 
is  commonly  used." 

Sure  enough,  what  religion,  whose  religion  ? 
With  representative  men  of  every  denomination 
setting  forth,  as  they  have  lately  done  in  the 
pages  of  the  North  American  Review^  the  rea- 
sons for  their  belief,  who  among  us  dares  to 
arrogate  to  himself  the  right  to  dictate  concern- 
ing the  faith  or  practice  of  his  fellows? 


136  ''  The    Young  I  dear 

In  a  fine  article  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for 
May,  1887,  George  Frederick  Parsons  thus 
writes,  *'  Everywhere  the  influence  of  the  spirit- 
ual upon  life  is  declining,  and  this  notwithstand- 
ing some  appearance  to  the  contrary.  Intellect- 
ual assent  to  doctrines  never  translated  into 
practice,  has  indeed  been  the  world's  favorite 
method  of  evading  its  higher  duties  and  obliga- 
tions in  all  times." 

Nearly  forty  years  before,  Ralph  Waldo  Emer- 
son said  substantially  the  same  thing  :  *^  The 
moral  influence  of  the  intellect  is  wanting.  We 
hearken  in  vain  for  any  profound  voice  speaking 
to  the  American  heart,  cheering  timid  men,  ani- 
mating the  youth,  consoling  the  defeated,  and  in- 
telligently announcing  duties  which  clothe  life 
with  joy,  and  endear  the  face  of  land  and  sea  to 
men." 

Prof.  Charles  E.  Lowrey  thus  writes  in  Educa- 
tion for  March  1888  :  "  A  learned  divine  of  na- 
tional reputation  delivered  a  Thanksgiving  ad- 
dress in  one  of  the  great  educational  centers  of 
our  country.  He  speaks  not  of  the  Mayflower 
nor  boasts  of  our  national  prosperity.  In  fact 
the  venerable  seer  breathes  not  a  word  of  thank- 
fulness, for  he  sees  no  evidence  of  divine  pres- 
ence in  the  signs  of  the  times.  The  condemna- 
tion of  other  republics  is  upon  ours.  To  the 
survivor  of  the  pristine  virtues  of  our  sires,  society 
has  become  a  troubled  sea." 

It  is  not  a  pessimistic,  but  a  purely  practical 


*'  The    Young  Idea:'  137 

view  of  the  situation  which  leads  every  thinking 
mind  to  see  and  realize  the  danger  threatening 
character  in  the  unsettling  of  religious  beliefs, 
independence  of  thought  and  action,  and  above 
all  in  the  making  haste  to  be  rich  characteristic 
of  our  age  and  country.  When  men  boldly 
assert,  without  shame,  or  risk  of  contradiction, 
that  "  the  best  liar  makes  the  best  tradesman," 
and  that  ''  no  successful  business  can  be  carried 
on  without  cheating,"  is.it  not  high  time  to  con- 
sider the  present  condition  and  the  future  out- 
look of  our  social  and  business  life? 

There  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
whether  or  not  our  young  people  should  be 
instructed  in  righteousness, — the ''right-doing," 
about  which  all  men  agree,  whatever  "  the 
difference  in  the  special  hue  of  truth  they  look 
at  through  their  human  prisms."  Socrates  with 
his  marvellous  logic  said  virtue  consisted  in 
knowledge.  To  do  right  was  the  only  road  to 
happiness,  and  as  every  man  sought  to  be  happy, 
vice  could  arise  only  from  ignorance,  or  mistake 
as  to  the  means.  What  is  the  honorable  and 
the  base  ?  What  is  the  just  and  the  unjust  ? 
he  questioned.  Men  that  knew  these  matters 
he  accounted  good  and  honorable  ;  men  that 
were  ignorant  of  them  he  assimilated  to  slaves. 
The  great  philosopher  even  anticipated  the  con- 
troversy of  our  day  concerning  religious  teach- 
ing. "  Do  these  inquirers,"  he  sharply  asks, 
"  think    that  they  already  know  human  affairs 


138  *'  The    Young  Idea:' 

well  enough  that  they  thus  begin  to  meddle 
with  divine  ?" 

"  The  foundation  of  culture  is  the  moral  senti- 
ment," declares  Emerson,  as  Montaigne  has 
asserted,  "  The  advantages  of  study  are  to 
make  us  wiser  and  better." 

""  Knowledge  is  always  power,  but  it  is  not 
always  beneficent  power,"  writes  Mrs.  Horace 
Mann.  ''  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  some  of 
the  greatest  criminals  in  society  have  been  men 
of  ability  and  knowledge.  These  divorced  from 
conscience  made  them  only  the  more  powerful 
for  evil." 

Says  John  Stuart  Mill :  ^'  Education  has  for 
its  object,  besides  calling  forth  the  greatest  pos- 
sible quantity  of  intellectual  power,  to  inspire 
the  intensest  love  of  truth." 

*'  It  is  not  what  the  best  men  do,  but  what 
they  are,  that  constitutes  their  truest  benefactions 
to  their  fellow-men,"  is  a  remark  of  the  Rev. 
Phillips  Brooks. 

Bishop  Huntington  declares :  **  Moral  judg- 
ment, conscience,  and  will  are  quite  as  valuable 
as  apprehension,  acquisition,  and  memory. 
Where  they  dwindle  or  are  overshadowed  it  is 
not  only  the  symmetry  of  a  complete  individual 
manhood  that  must  suffer  ;  society  will  be  dis- 
ordered." 

Says  Prof.  Bain:  ''  The  difficulties  of  moral 
teaching  exceed  in  every  way  diiificulties  of 
intellectual   teaching.       The    method    is    ham- 


**  The   Young  Idea''  139 

pered  by  so  many  conditions  that  it  barely  ad- 
mits of  precise  statement  or  demonstration, 
Morality  is  in  the  situation  of  the  mother  tongue. 
— it  does  not  depend  solely  on  the  school  teach- 
ing or  on  any  one  source  ;  it  is  imbibed  from 
innumerable  sources,  and  the  school  does  not 
rank  even  as  one  of  the  chief."  This  is  what 
Emerson  means  when  he  says,  "  You  send  your 
child  to  the  schoolmaster,  but  'tis  the  school- 
boys who  educate  him.  You  send  him  to  the 
Latin  class,  but  much  of  his  tuition  comes,  on 
his  way  to  school,  from  the  shop  windows,"  and 
Jean  Paul  declares  that  "  no  man  can  take  a 
walk  without  bringing  home  an  influence  on  his 
eternity." 

The  question  as  to  how  morals  should  be 
taught  in  the  schoolroom,  naturally  follows  the 
admission  that  it  is  necessary  that  they  should 
be  taught.  Fortunately  it  is  just  now  a  matter 
which  is  receiving  the  attention  of  some  of  our 
most  logical  and  clear-headed  thinkers,  and 
before  long  a  satisfactory  solution  may  be  given. 
Notwithstanding  the  statement  of  Aristotle, 
^'  Only  when  the  mind  has  become  noble  and  in- 
clined to  goodness  can  instruction  in  morality 
be  given  with  advantage,"  we  know  that  much 
indirect  teaching  is  necessary  in  order  to  make 
the  mind  incline  to  goodness.  The  formal  teach- 
ing of  morality,  recognized  under  the  technical 
name  of  Ethics,  will  naturally  be  deferred  until 
its  proper  season. 


140  ^'  The   Young  Idea'' 

For  years  there  has  been  much  discussion 
concerning  the  reading  of  the  Bible  in  the 
public  schools.  To  paraphrase  the  incisive  words 
of  President  Seelye,  ^' Is  there  any  reason  why 
we  should  read  Bacon  or  Byron  in  our  schools 
and  not  the  Bible  ?"  There  can  be  no  possible 
objection  to  reading  the  Bible  as  well  as  Bacon 
and  Byron,  provided  it  could  be  read  in  the 
same  way.  As  the  life  of  Christ  is  an  inspiring 
example  of  unselfishness,  manliness,  and  devo- 
tion to  the  highest  ideals,  full  of  all  things 
pure,  lovely,  and  of  good  report,  so  the 
history,  the  poetry,  the  moral  and  dramatic 
element  found  so  largely  in  the  Bible  make  the 
book  one  of  our  literary  treasures  with  which 
even  the  skeptic  and  the  scoffer  might  be  loth 
to  part.  There  is  no  reason  why  we  may  not 
tell  children  the  qualities  of  one  of  the  noblest 
natures  ever  embodied  in  human  form,  or  read 
to  them  the  grandest  poetry  and  soundest  phi- 
losophy of  which  the  human  intellect  is  capable. 

In  some  quarters  a  compromise  has  been 
affected, — the  spirit  of  the  reading  has  been 
given  up  while  the  letter  has  been  kept.  Judge 
Noah  Davis  calls  reading  without  comment  ^'  hori- 
zontal reduction,"  and  ''a  concession  that  is  a 
confession." 

But  is  not  the  reading  of  the  Bible  without 
comment  better  than  no  reading  at  all,  provided 
judgment  is  used  in  the  selections  ?  It  can 
without  question  aid  in  moral  and  literary  edu- 


"  The    Voting  Idea!^  14 ^ 

cation,  and  can  be  profitably  used  in  connection 
with  the  teaching  of  ancient  geography  and 
history.  If  it  cannot  be  read  without  additional 
comment,  should  it  be  read  at  all  ? 

It  is  assumed  that  some  teachers,  to  whom 
the  book  is  nothing  less  than  a  divine  revelation, 
feel  unable  and  unwilling  to  make  only  this 
utilitarian  use  of  it.  Let  such  heed  the  words 
of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  and  deny  the  truth 
of  them  if  they  can.  "  If  a  human  soul  is  neces- 
sarily to  be  trained  up  in  the  faith  of  those  from 
whom  it  inherits  its  body  "  (or  from  those  from 
whom  it  receives  its  education)  ^*  why,  there  is  the 
end  of  all  reason.  If,  sooner  or  later,  every  soul  is 
to  look  for  the  truth  with  its  own  eyes,  the  first 
thing  is  to  recognize  that  no  presumption  in 
favor  of  any  particular  belief  arises  from  the 
fact  of  our  inheriting  it." 

We  must  endure  narrowness,  intolerance,  big- 
otry in  the  pulpit,  where  we  expect  more  or  less 
of  it, — at  any  rate  where  we  get  it,  whether  we 
expect  it  or  not  ;  in  law,  where  unprincipled 
practitioners  can  be  hired  to  advocate  any 
cause  regardless  of  its  character;  in  medicine, 
where  some  physicians  prefer  to  kill  a  patient 
by  the  treatment  of  a  particular  school,  rather 
than  cure  him  by  the  method  of  any  other  ; 
but  let  us  in  the  name  of  humanity  banish  it  for- 
ever from  the  profession  of  teaching.  The  teacher 
trains  the  future  ministers,  lawyers,  and  doctors, 
as  well  as  their  parishioners,  clients,  and  patients.^ 


142  '^  The    Young  Idea!* 

By  virtue  of  his  office  he  should  be  the  broadest- 
minded  man  under  the  whole  heavens.  If  he  is 
not,  wherein  lies  our  hope  for  the  future  ? 

It  is  not  only  in  the  reading  of  the  Bible 
but  in  the  teaching  of  history,  that  cer- 
tain teachers  are  tempted,  almost  beyond  what 
they  can  bear,  to  enforce  particular  dogmas. 
The  study  of  history  should  in  some  respects  be 
conducted  as  carefully  as  Scripture  readings. 
The  teaching  can  easily  be  made  to  converge  to 
particular  theological  and  political  points,  dear 
to  the  heart  of  the  instructor,  profoundly  be- 
lieved in  by  him,  and,  in  some  cases,  taught  with 
the  same  conscientiousness  as  led  Saul  to  per- 
secute the  Christians.  But  it  is  certainly  incum- 
bent upon  him  to  experience  a  change  of  heart 
in  this  direction  with  as  little  delay  as  possible. 

As  says  Superintendent  A.  P.  Marble  of  Wor- 
cester, Mass.  :  "  To  enforce  through  the  text- 
books and  the  teachers  the  teaching  of  opinions 
held  by  the  majority,  is  a  kind  of  oppression  of 
the  minority.  The  object  of  the  school  is  edu- 
cation, not  the  promulgation  of  any  one  set  of 
opinions  ;  the  development  of  the  powers,  and 
not  storing  pupil's  minds  with  the  opinions  and 
thoughts  of  older  people." 

Wm.  Hawley  Smith  of  Peoria,  111.,  the  author 
of  that  most  entertaining  and  instructive  book, 
*'The  Evolution  of  Dodd,"  thus  writes  : 

'*  In  the  evolution  of  character  in  these  last 
days,  the  public  school  has  come  to  be   a  most 


''  The    Young  Idea!'  i43 

important  factor.  To  it  has  been  assigned  a 
task  equal  to,  if  not  exceeding,  that  of  any  other 
agency  that  has  to  deal  with  human  nature.  It 
is  more  important  than  can  be  set  forth  that  it 
do  its  work  well.  It  is  not  so  doing  now,  how- 
ever, to  nearly  the  extent  of  which  it  is  capable. 
Too  much  it  has  become  a  mere  machine,  a 
mill  for  grinding  out  graduates.  As  such,  it  is 
unworthy  its  high  estate.  As  such,  it  now  ex- 
ists in  a  multitude  of  cases.  As  such,  it  should 
no  longer  be  tolerated.  From  such  a  condition 
it  must  be  redeemed.  The  system  has  largely 
lost  sight  of  the  grandest  thing  in  all  the  world, 
namely,  the  individual  soul.  In  addressing 
itself  to  humanity  collectively,  as  a  herd,  it 
makes  a  fatal  mistake,  one  that  must  be  cor- 
rected and  that  speedily.  Characters  cannot  be 
manufactured  like  pins,  by  the  million,  neither 
can  salvation  be  handled  in  job  lots. 

No  teacher  can  leave  moral  training  out  of 
any  course  of  study.  The  very  atmosphere  of 
the  school-room  is  charged  with  influences  for 
either  good  or  evil,  while  every  word  and  act  of 
the  teacher  has  its  weight  on  either  one  side  or 
the  other.  Nor  need  he  be  troubled  as  to  how 
much  moral  teaching  he  shall  do.  The  amount 
can  be  limited  only  by  his  opportunity,  and,  in 
some  cases,  by  the  amount  of  his  courage.  For, 
as  truly  in  this  nineteenth  century  as  in  the 
historic  Dark  Ages  of  the  world,  are  men  made 
martyrs  to   their  principles  when  they  dare  to 


144  "  The    Young  Idea.'' 

assert  them  and  to  live  up  to  them  in  the  face 
of  social  opposition.  One  case  will  serve  for 
illustration. 

A  young  man  in  one  of  the  Middle  States  had 
been  employed  but  a  short  time  in  a  certain 
school  when  he  was  called  upon  by  some  suspi- 
cious members  of  the  committee  for  the  purpose 
of  further  examination  as  to  his  moral  qualifica- 
tions. A  long  and  excited  conversation  was 
ended  by  the  young  man,  who  said,  *'Gentle- 
men,  it  is  useless  for  you  to  argue  these  matters, 
and  unbecoming  in  me  to  do  so.  Allow  me, 
instead,  to  state  to  you  in  writing  what  I  call 
my  creed,  and  then  decide  at  your  next  meeting 
whether  you  wish  me  to  continue  my  work 
among  you."  The  proposition  was  accepted 
and  the  communication  was  looked  for  with 
interest.  It  ran  thus:  ^*  I  believe  with  Froebel 
that  there  is  a  divinity  in  every  little  child.  I 
venerate  that  incarnation  of  the  Deity.  I  try  to 
teach  my  pupils,  by  precept  and  example,  to  do 
'right  because  it  is  right,  to  show  them  why  it  is 
wrong  to  quarrel,  tell  tales,  lie,  steal,  cheat,  or 
swear.  I  do  all  in  my  power  to  make  them 
abhor  tobacco  and  all  intoxicating  drinks.  I 
will  never  use  my  influence  for  any  political 
party  or  religious  creed,  while  I  try  to  make 
them  familiar  with  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  all  morality  and  good  government." 
The  document  settled  his  fate,  as  he  had  a 
reason    to    fear   it   would.     By   a   vote    of    the 


"  The   Young  Idea!'  145 

majority  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  all  church 
members,  and  two  of  them  receiving  enormous 
rents  from  popular  drinking-saloons,  it  was  deci- 
ded that  the  young  man  was  unfit  to  retain  his 
position,  and  his  resignation  was  accordingly 
requested. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

GREEN  APPLES  AND    GOOSEBERRIES. 

'*  Composition  is  writing  down  something 
you've  made  up  in  your  own  head."  There  is 
no  fault  to  be  found  with  this  definition  until  it 
is  extended  to  the  process  of  writing  out  some- 
thing that  originated  in  the  head  of  somebody 
else. 

The  editor  of  a  magazine  not  long  ago  re- 
ceived this  note  :  "  Dear  Sir,  The  enclosed 
poem  is  original  in  me  and  I  didn't  have  any 
help  in  writing  it  out.  There  is  more  where  this 
come  from  if  I  had  an  inducement  to  think  them 
up.  You  may  say  '  original '  at  the  top  of  this 
poem  for  every  word  is  by  the  author." 

The  power  to  express  one's  ideas  is  most 
desirable,  and  for  such  work  only  two  simple 
things  are  needed — ideas,  and  the  skill  to  clothe 
them  in  words.  But  first,  the  ideas.  The  pro- 
cess is  not  materially  different  from  that  of 
cooking     the     hare, —  first    catch    your    hare. 


146  *^  The    Young  Idea'' 

And  while  you  are  about  it,  perhaps  it  is  well  to 
make  sure  tliat  the  animal  is  your  property  and 
not  your  neighbor's. 

Nothing  in  our  schools  is  more  desirable  than 
composition  work,  if — Ah,  that  '*if"!  ''Much 
virtue  in  an  If,"  says  Touchstone. 

The  development  of  the  child's  mind  may  be 
fairly  supposed  to  bear  some  relation  to  the 
growth  of  his  body.  His  father's  boots  may  fit 
him  one  of  these  days,  though  they  will  trip  him 
up  now  if  he  tries  to  walk  in  them.  His  own 
small  shoes  serve  him  perfectly  for  the  present. 
His  ideas  are  in  proportion,  very  good  what 
there  are  of  them,  and  a  good  many  of  them, 
considering  the  short  time  he  has  lived. 

He  is  familiar,  for  instance,  with  his  finger- 
nails ;  he  has  seen  his  father  using  things  of  the 
same  name  in  putting  down  the  sitting-room 
carpet  ;  once  he  trod  with  his  little  bare  foot  on 
an  article  of  that  sort,  and  received  a  lively  im- 
pression of  its  size,  shape,  and  strength.  In 
brief,  he  has  acquired  ideas  on  nails.  They  are 
few  in  number,  limited  in  range,  lacking  the 
broad  horizon  of  the  mature  essayist,  but  they 
are  his  own  as  truly  as  are  the  fingers  upon  his 
hand.  Consequently  he  is  qualified  to  wTite  a 
composition 

''On  Nails. 

''  Nails  are  made  of  iron  nails  are  of  four  kinds 
Nails  that  you  hammer  with  finger  nails  toe 
nails  door  nails  and  tacks." 


The    Youno-  Idea:'  i47 


'"^6 


He  comprehends  the  word  ^'  parents  "  after  his 
brain  has  appropriated  the  definition,  in  the 
same  way  as  his  stomach  appropriated  the  bread 
which  he  ate  for  breakfast.  He  is  then  able  to 
write  another  one 

^'On  Parents. 

*'  Parents  are  of  two  kinds  male  and  female. 
What  should  we  do  without  parents  ?  " 

This  production  has  at  least  the  brevity  which 
is  "  the  soul  of  wit,"  even  if  the  wit  itself  is  lack- 
ing. Possibly  a  realizing  sense  of  what  such  a 
deprivation  might  be,  froze  the  genial  current 
in  the  soul  of  the  young  writer,  and  prevented 
him  from  elaborating  the  theme. 

There  is  a  certain  flavor  of  the  Sunday-school 
in  the  next  production,  but  there  is  no  reason  why 
the  child's  religious  and  secular  education  should 
not  harmonize.  There  is  often  great  complaint 
when  they  fail  to  do  so.  The  metaphor  slips 
gracefully  into  the  literary  work 

^'On  Water. 
^'  Water  is  hard  water  soft  water  and  the  water 
of  life  and  soft  water  has  rigglers  in  it." 

His  elucidation  of  another  subject  shows  hon- 
est thought  and  observation,  so  far  as  his  oppor- 
tunities have  permitted.     He  writes 

''On  Cows. 
''  Cows  are  of  two  kinds  good  Cows  and  bad 
Cows  and  red  Cows.     I  dont  like  the  Cows  that 


14^  "  The    Young  Idea.** 

hook  you  some  do  Cows  is  bigger  than  Cats  and 
Dogs  and  Carfs  and  as  big  as  Horses  some  of 
them  are  Cow  giv  us  nice  Milk  the  Milk  Man 
carres  Somthing  round  in  tin  Cans  and  sells  it." 

This  composition  is  not  beyond  criticism  in 
one  or  two  minor  points.  It  is  not  quite  clear  as 
to  which  class  of  cows  the  red  cows  belong,  nor 
whether  some  cows  hook  you,  or  some  folks  like 
cows  of  that  kind.  The  rather  sudden  depar- 
ture from  the  main  topic  may  be  regarded  as  a 
mere  pleasantry,  or  it  may  show  that  the  small 
mind  is  enlarging,  taking  the  first  step  on  the 
analytical  road,  reasoning  from  cause  to  effect, 
from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract,  from  the 
known  to  the  unknown — at  least  as  regards  the 
contents  of  the  cans. 

He  writes  of 

'*  The  Schoolroom. 

"  My  schoolroom  has  6  Winders  and  12  Pains 
of  Glas  in  a  Winder.  That  makes  72.  Its  a 
pleasant  room  only  My  Mother  she  Maid  me  a 
Pare  of  Pance  and  she  Maid  them  to  Tite  and 
John  O'Neill  hes  lafifin  at  me  and  Teacher  a 
Botons  flew  off  and  please  may  I  go  home  rite 
quick." 

This  is  no  plagiarism,  neither  is  it  a  translation 
from  any  of  the  old  Italian  poets.  It  is  straight- 
forward, honest,  mental  work,  containing  not 
even  a  quotation,  unless  we  except  the  mathe- 
matical statement  for  which  due  credit  must  be 


"  The   Young  Idea''  149 

given  to  the  multiplication  table.  To  be  sure,  it 
has  small  mechanical  errors  in  orthography  and 
capitalization,  as  well  as  a  somewhat  faulty  rhe- 
torical style.  But  time  can  mend  all  that,  per- 
haps even  better  than  his  miscalculating  mother 
can  mend  the  ^'  Pance." 

This  same  element  of  stanch  honesty  is  par- 
ticularly striking  in  the  statement  concerning 

"  Walking. 

"  My  favorite  walk  is  when  I  do  not  have  far 
to  go  for  it." 

This  bears  the  unmistakable  stamp  of  origin- 
ality, for  what  can  sound  more  familiar  to  the 
teacher's  ear  than  the  spontaneous  "is  when"? 
''A  noun  is  when — "  ''Addition  is  when — " 
"  A  figure  of  speech  is  when — " 

The  information  imparted  in  the  following  is 
a  little  too  vague  to  be  valuable: 

"  Cricket. 

"  The  game  of  cricket  consists  of  six  stumps 
two  bats  and  a  ball.  Nor  must  we  omit  the  balls 
which  are  four  in  number." 

The  writer  is  more  sinned  against  than  sin- 
ning, when  on  being  assigned  an  abstract  theme 
fit  only  for  a  Shelley  or  an  Emerson,  he  thus  dis- 
courses on 

"  Beauty. 

"  Beauty  is  something  we  see  sometimes  pretty 


150  ''  The    Young  Idea:' 

often  and  then  again  sometimes  there  isent  a 
great  deal  of  it.  Some  dogs  are  called  a  beauty. 
A  man  who  comes  to  our  house  Sunday  nights 
says  my  sisters  a  beauty  but  he  don't  know  how 
she  makes  faces  belund  pars  back  wen  he  said 
no  you  sharnt  have  a  seelskin  sack  this  winter. 
And  I  dont  know  any  more  on  Beauty." 

The  work  of  an  Indian  pupil  in  the  school  at 
Hampton,  Virginia,  is  most  refreshing  from  its 
evident  genuineness  as  well  as  the  imagination 
displayed.  Like  Sam  Weller's  valentine  it  might 
be  said  to  be  "werging  on  the  poetical." 

"  One  day,  bright  day,  and  the  little  bird 
happy  and  stood  on  a  log  and  sang  all  day  long. 
That  bird  doesn't  know  anything  about  cat.  She 
thinks  nobody  is  near  to  her.  But  behind  the 
near  log  one  sly  cat  is  watching,  She  want  to  eat 
for  supper,  and  she  thinks  about  stealing  all  the 
time.  The  old  cat  came  very  slow,  and  by  and 
by  she  go  after  the  little  bird,  but  she  does  not 
see  him  and  sang  loud  again.  She  sang  just  like 
this.  I  always  try  to  do  w^hat  is  right.  When 
I  ever  died  I  go  to  heaven.  That  bird  said  these 
all  words  and  I  shall  not  forget  the  bird  what  it 
said,  and  these  all  words  it  said  and  after  two  or 
three  minutes  go  died.  That  cat  jumped  and 
catcli  and  kill,  eat  all  up  except  little  things  from 
bird,  wings,  legs  or  skin,  and  that  bird  is  glad  to 
die  because  she  is  very  good  bird.  That  little 
bird  has  last  time  sang,  and  very  happy  was  that 
little  bird  after  that," 


''  The    Young  Idear  151 

Equally  creditable  is  one  by  a  German  pupil 
after  three  weeks'  residence  in  this  country: 

"  The  tree  is  a  used  thing  for  us.  He  is  good 
for  us  in  the  summer  when  the  sun  shines.  A 
tree  has  much  branch.  The  tree  gives  us  in 
summer  so  much  fruit.  He  gives  us  appels, 
pears,  plums.  We  calls  the  tree  like  the  fruit. 
On  a  tree  where  grow  appels  we  said,  it  is  an 
appel  tree,  and  on  the  tree  where  grow  pear,  we 
said  it  is  an  pear  tree.  We  have  in  our  garden 
two  appel,  two  pear  and  one  plums  tree.  My 
mother  make  pie  of  them.  In  the  tree  are  so 
much  bird  tliat  sing.  We  must  be  kind  to  God 
that  he  gave  us  the  tree." 

It  is  certainly  easier  to  go  to  work  with  our 
material  already  in  our  hands,  than  to  be  obliged 
to  manufacture  it  before  we  can  use  it.  If  chil- 
dren are  not .  sufficiently  advanced  to  evolve 
their  own  ideas,  and  need,  as  they  certainly  do, 
practice  in  expression,  why  should  not  the  ideas 
be  generously  given  them  and  their  work  thereby 
limited  to  what  they  are  able  to  do  ? 

All  children  know  what  a  hot  summer  day 
is,  and  of  late  years  even  city  children  are  ac- 
quainted with  our  imported  pest  known  as  ^*a 
sparrow."  It  cannot,  therefore,  be  difficult  for 
any  one  to  understand  this  little  story  as  it  is 
read  aloud  : 

"  On  a  hot  summer  day,  some  little  fat  sparrows 
Thought  'twould  be  cooling  to  fly  fast  as  arrows 
Over  the  wall  to  a  nice  shady  nook 
And  take  a  fresh  bath  in  the  clear  flowing  brook. 


152  "  The   Young  I  dear 

But  they  splashed  and  they  chirped  and  made  such  a 

commotion, 
That  they  turned  the  clear  brook  to  a  real  little  ocean  ; 
And  the  two  little  sisters  who'd  watched  them  at  play 
Laughed  out  then  so  gayly,  it  scared  them  away." 

This  material  is  *'  worked  up  "  as  follows  : 

*'  It  was  hot  one  day  in  the  summer  and  sum 
little  sparrers  thout  it  would  be  nice  an  cool  to  fly 
into  a  Brooke  an  they  flied  in  an  it  was  over  a  Wall 
an  they  made  a  good  deal  of  nose  a  chirpering 
an  they  took  a  barth  an  the  little  Brooke  run  into 
the  osan  an  the  little  girls  were  so  Scared  they 
larfed." 

Here  is  more  trouble  with  orthography,  but  as 
this  exercise  is  merely  in  expression  of  ideas,  one 
can  make  due  allowance.  In  Prof.  Bain's  words, 
''  After  the  very  best  classification  the  attainment 
of  English  spelling  is  a  work  of  long  time  and 
detail,  the  result  of  combined  reading,  writing 
from  dictation,  and  extensive  practice  under  cor- 
rection." The  spelling  of  the  English  language 
was  not  settled  in  a  day,  though  we  are  some- 
times surprised  that  children  do  not  learn  it  in  a 
week  or  two.  As  regards  the  literary  merit  of 
the  tiny  story,  what  fault  can  be  found  with  it  ? 
— setting  aside  the  singular  psychological  effect 
stated  in  the  last  words,  the  result  of  a  slight 
misunderstanding  concerning  the  relation  of  the 
*' scare"  to  the  ''laugh." 

But  when,  instead  of  placing  before  the  child 
such  simple  mental  diet,  he  is  set  to  masticate 


**  The   You?ig  Idea.''  i53 

tremendous  mouthfuls  of  the  rich  and  solid 
fare  of  *'  Festus,"  one  stands  appalled  at  the 
digestive  process  : 

**  We  live  in  deeds,  not  years  ;  in  thoughts,  not  breaths; 
In  feelings,  not  in  figures  on  a  dial. 
We  should  count  time  by  heart-throbs.     He  most  lives 
Who  thinks  most,  feels  the  noblest,  acts  the  best  ; 
And  he  whose  heart  beats  quickest  lives  the  longest, 
Lives  in  one  hour  more  than  in  years  do  some 
Whose  fat  blood  sleeps,  as  it  slips  along  their  veins. 
Life  is  but  a  means  unto  an  end  ;  that  end, 
Beginning,  mean,  and  end  of  all  things, — God. 
The  dead  have  all  the  glory  of  the  world." 

"  Digestion  is  simulating  your  food,"  states  a 
pupil.  ''  Digestion  is  disintregrating  all  the 
things  you  eat  if  you  eat  anything,"  says  another. 
There  is  evident  ''  disintregration  "  here. 

'^  We  are  alive  when  we  do  something  and  not 
just  count  the  years  when  we  are  alive.  We 
must  think  and  not  breathe  feelings  are  not  like 
the  figures  on  a  clock.  We  ought  to  try  to  feel 
our  heartbeats.  He  has  the  most  lives  who  thinks 
the  most,  lives  as  noble  as  he  can  and  acts  the 
best  he  knows  how  to.  He  who  has  the  quickest 
heart  has  the  longest  life.  In  one  hour  he  can 
live  a  great  deal  longer  than  some  who  are  fat 
and  when  the  blood  sleeps  instead  of  slipping 
through  the  veins  life  means  that  everything  lias 
an  end  the  end  and  the  beginning  means  that  all 
things  are  God  and  the  dead  people  have  all  the 
glory  there  is." 

Says  wise  old  Roger  Ascham,    **  There  is  a 


154  *'  The    Young  Idea:' 

kind  of  Paraphrase  which  niay  be  used  without 
hurt  to  moch  proffet."  (Evidently  this  is  not 
the  kind.)  Again,  ''  The  scholer  shall  winne 
nothing  by  Paraphrase  onelie  to  choose  worse 
words,  to  gather  up  faultes  which  hardlie  will  be 
left  of  againe."  This  result  is  a  very  natural 
one,  but,  ^^  Paraphrase  has,  nevertheless,  a  good 
place  in  learning,  but  not,  in  myne  opinion  for 
any  scholer,  but  is  onelie  to  be  left  to  a  perfite 
Master." 

The  evolution  of  a  composition  from  literary 
protoplasm,  the  process  of  secretion,  nutrition 
and  growth,  when  carried  on  with  the  aid  of  a 
teacher,  is  a  most  curious  and  interesting  oper- 
ation, though  its  value  is  largely  dependent 
upon  circumstances.  Some  persons  are  even 
rash  enough  to  assert  that  it  has  no  value  under 
any  circumstances. 

Given  a  subject,  the  pupil  sets  conscientiously 
to  work. 

''  Better  be  Trampled  in  the  Dust  than  Tram- 
ple on  a  Fellow-Creature." 

*^  We  ought  all  to  follow  the  Golden  Rule. 
We  do  not  want  any  one  to  take  advantage  of  us 
and  we  ought  to  be  extremely  careful  how  we 
take  advantage  of  them.  We  ought  to  do  unto 
others  as  ye  would  that  they  should  do  unto  you. 
It  is  very  easy  for  some  people  to  trample  others 
in  the  dust,  though  everybody  will  refrain  from 
doing  it  with  a  kind  heart.  Every  one  should 
remember  that  they  are  brothers  and  that  God 


"  The    Youncr  Idea,''  15 5 

is  their  Father.  Then  we  shall  all  be  just  to  our 
fellow-creatures." 

The  subject  does  not  prove  a  particularly  sug- 
gestive one  to  the  young  mind.  The  owner  of  the 
mind  has  never  been  trampled  either  in  literal 
or  metaphorical  dust,  nor  has  she  ever  felt  the 
slightest  desire  to  serve  in  that  disagreeable 
fashion  any  member  of  the  human  family.  Evi- 
dently she  cannot  follow  the  direction,  "  Look 
in  thy  heart  and  write.'*  She  gazes,  ruefully  at 
the  one  sheet  of  note-paper  bearing  all  the  ideas 
she  has  been  able  to  cudgel  from  her  brains  with 
the  most  persistent  belaboring.  It  will  take  at 
least  five  pages  of  that  size  to  make  a  graduation 
essay  of  respectable  length.  Where  in  chaos  is  she 
to  look  for  the  ideas  wherewith  to  cover  the  other 
four  ?  A  camel  may  be  evolved  from  the  inner  con- 
sciousness, but  it  would  be  as  easy  for  the  camel 
to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle  as  for  her  to 
successfully  trample  under  foot  the  difficulties 
which  beset  her  dim  and  dusty  way.  She  wishes 
she  had  taken  the  other  subject  proposed,  "The 
Comparative  Claims  of  the  Pisistratidse,  Har- 
modius  and  Aristogiton,  to  the  Government  of 
the  Grecian  Monarchy."  She  had  eighty-nine 
per  cent,  in  Grecian  history,  and  there  is  some- 
thing about  that  subject  in  the  cyclopedia. 

But  the  teacher  is  patient,  earnest,  even  enthu- 
siastic, faithful  '*  in  season  and  out  of  season," 
and  a  vast  deal  of  "exhibition"  work  must  be 
done   in   a   season   which   is   decidedly  "  out." 


156  "  The    Young  Hear 

Saturday  is  not  always  a  holiday,  nor  Sunday  a 
day  of  rest  to  the  composition  teacher.  The 
programme  must  be  varied,  the  essays  interest- 
ing, the  whole  affair  a  credit  to  the  school.  She 
feels  very  much  as  if  washing  her  fingers  ''  in 
invisible  water  with  imperceptible  soap  "  as  she 
handles  the  poor  little  embryonic  page  and  real- 
izes all  that  is  in  waiting  for  her  and  for  her  pupil 
who  must  be  *' psychologized,"  "stimulated," 
"incited  to,  think,"  "educated  up  to  it,"  or  what- 
ever it  seems  most  satisfactory  to  call  the  pecu- 
liar process.  Then  follows  a  long  succession  of 
interviews  also  "in  season  and  out  of  season," 
principally  "out,"  sandwiched  in  between  recita- 
tions, prolonged  after  hours  in  the  schoolroom, 
and  often  carried  on  in  the  home  of  the  teacher. 
A  few  inches  will  serve  as  a  specimen  of  these 
yards  of  educational  dialogue: 

"  Of  course  we  can  consider  this  only  as  the 
outline — the  beginning  of  your  essay.  It  must 
be  at  least  five  minutes  long,  though  it  would  be 
better  if  it  were  ten  or  fifteen." 

"Yes,  I  suppose  so,  but  I  can't  think  of  any- 
thing more  to  say." 

"  Well,  my  dear,  I  am  to  teach  you  how  to 
think.  We  must  see  how  we  can  elaborate  the 
subject.  That  is  the  benefit  you  get  from  work- 
ing on  a  composition.  It  enlarges  your  ideas, 
your  vocabulary.  Some  of  these  expressions 
are  not  correct  grammatically ;  for  instance,  the 
tense  of  this  verb  is — " 


"  The   Young  Idea.''  15 7 

**  Oh,  dear,  I  knew  better  than  that,  of  course. 
I  didn't  think."  The  development  of  the  idea 
was  so  difficult  that  no  particular  heed  was 
given  to  the  form  of  expression ;  it  was  a 
triumph  to  get  it  to  express  itself  in  any  shape, 
and  only  a  magician  can  keep  two  plates  spin- 
ning in  the  air  at  the  same  time. 

''  Your  first  sentence  is  rather  abrupt,  don't 
you  think  so  ?  And  if  you  refer  to  the  golden 
rule  there  is  no  need  of  quoting  it  farther  on,  as 
every  one  is  supposed  to  know  it.  In  fact,  your 
third  sentence,  as  you  see,  don't  you  ? — is  only  a 
repetition  of  the  first.  When  you  say  *  it  is  very 
easy,'  etc.,  don't  you  think  it  would  brighten  up 
your  paper  a  good  deal  if  you  gave  some  strik- 
ing illustrations  ?  You  might  mention  Napo- 
leon's career — I  will  make  out  a  list  of  books  for 
you  to  look  over,  then  you  may  re-write  that 
part  of  your  essay — perhaps  you  can  think  of 
some  other  historical  incidents  which  could  be 
woven  in  nicely — and  bring  it  to  me  again  to- 
morrow." 

To-morrow  might  be  written  down  like  some 
of  the  chapters  in  old  reading-books,  which  al- 
ways had  so  depressing  an  appearance  to  lovers 
of  novelty,  "  Same  subject.  Continued."  The 
next  day  and  the  next  is  still  the  "  Same  subject. 
Continued,"  until  at  the  end  of  a  month  which, 
^'  like  a  wounded  snake  drags  its  slow  length 
along,"  the  theme  is  happily  varied  by  the  sub- 
stitution, "  Same  subject,  Concluded." 


158  "  The    Young  Idea:' 

The  teacher's  frame  of  mind  over  the  com- 
pleted composition  cannot  truthfully  be  called 
exultant.  '*  We  have  just  had  our  graduation 
exercises,"  wrote  one  of  these  teachers  from  the 
west  a  few  months  ago.  ^'  Everything  passed  off 
well,  and  everybody  appeared  delighted.  Now 
I  am  beginning  on  the  next  set  of  essays.  The 
old  inflammation  of  the  eyes  which  troubled  me 
so  much  years  ago  has  returned  worse  than  ever, 
— probably  from  the  amount  of  night-work — and 
I  have  a  constant  headache.  But  these  are 
small  matters  in  comparison  with  my  degrada- 
tion of  soul.  I  feel  as  if  I  had  inexpressibly 
lowered  myself  by  doing  the  work  that  is  re- 
quired in  this  school,  aiding  and  abetting  the 
girls  in  a  sort  of  mental  sheep-stealing,  for,  of 
course,  these  essays  are  much  more  mine  than 
theirs.  The  worst  of  it  is  I  must  pretend  that  I 
consider  it  all  right  and  honest.  I  have  no  diffi- 
culty with  the  majority,  but  when  I  find  a  girl  a 
little  more  conscientious  or  less  conceited  than 
the  average  !  Fve  just  had  such  a  case,  and  it 
was  harder  for  me  to  manage  than  all  the  rest 
put  together.  I  am  sure  that  the  girl  has  lost 
every  particle  of  respect  for  me,  and  I  am  not 
surprised.  But  what  can  I  do?  I  cannot  afford 
to  give  up  this  position,  for  since  father  became 
helpless  with  paralysis,  sister  Emma  has  been 
left  a  widow  with  three  little  children.  If  I  were 
idle  for  a  month  I  don't  know  what  would  be- 
come of  the  two  families,  and,  as  you  know,  my 


**  The   Young  I  dear  159 

salary  here  is  large.  I  cannot  see  to  write  more. 
I  have  written  this  much  in  a  sort  of  desperation 
to  beg  you,  in  your  labor  on  behalf  of  teachers, 
to  emphasize  this  one  matter  of  composition 
work.  It  will  help  not  only  teachers,  but  their 
unconscious  victims." 

"  Unconscious  victims  "!  What  weird  signifi- 
cance in  those  last  two  words  !  And  this  is  but 
one  of  a  large  number  of  similar  letters  all  play- 
ing upon  the  same  sad  minor  theme  with  indi- 
vidual variations.  One  correspondent  breaks 
into  a  major  strain  for  a  few  lines  : 

*'  It  is  comical  business,- — if  looked  at  in  one 
way.  During  the  first  half-dozen  talks  with  the 
pupil  I  manage  to  get  out  piecemeal  nearly  all 
the  first  part  of  her  essay  and  get  in  my  own 
ideas.  I  refrain  from  meddling  with  the  rest 
until  that  much  is  safely  accomplished.  Then  I 
attack  the  end  and  work  backward  for  another 
half-dozen  interviews,  leaving  the  middle  un- 
touched. Finally  I  concentrate  my  forces  upon 
that  and  re-model  the  middle,  giving  finishing 
touches  at  the  same  time  to  certain  crude  spots 
all  through  the  paper.  The  fun  of  it  all  is  to 
see  how  firmly  the  girl  believes  that  she  has 
written  the  whole  of  it  !  Well,  it  is  certainly 
her  composition  in  the  same  sense  as  the  man's 
shoes  were  the  same  pair  he  had  worn  for  ten 
years,  having  new  uppers  every  spring,  and  every 
winter  new  soles.  But,  after  all,  this  is  anything 
but  a  laughing  matter." 


i6o  "  The    Young  I  dear 

In  the  mean  time  the  young  woman  who  is 
thoroughly  convinced  that  she  would  prefer  to 
be  Trampled  than  to  Trample,  etc.,  has  copied^ 
for  a  number  of  times  that  she  has  long  before 
lost  count  of,  the  paper  with  which  she  is  well 
pleased  both  on  account  of  the  quantity  as  well 
as  the  quality  of  the  Dust  and  her  Fellow- 
Creatures. 

^'  There  is  a  valuable  thought  contained  in 
these  words.  They  are  the  utterance  of  a  truth 
which  strikes  the  key-note  of  all  civilized  human 
intercourse.  It  is  the  practical  application  of 
that  most  beneficent  moral  lesson  promulgated 
by  the  Great  Teacher,  Do  unto  others  as  ye 
would  that  they  should  do  unto  you. 

"  Yet  in  our  social  world  there  are  many  vio- 
lations of  this  great  principle  of  justice.  Napo- 
leon after  his  celebrated  passage  of  the  Alps  ; 
in  the  celebrated  battle  of  Marengo  which  de- 
cided the  fate  of  Italy  ;  causing  himself  to  be 
elected  First  Consul  for  life  with  supreme  power  ; 
issuing  the  Berlin  Decree  ;  appropriating  most 
of  the  thrones  of  Europe  ;  driving  to  South 
America  the  royal  family  of  Portugal  ";  etc., 
etc.,  ''  was  totally  ignoring  that  great  principle," 
etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

Truly,  here  is  the  original  fowling-piece, 
changed  only  by  the  addition  of  a  new  lock, 
stock,  and  barrel. 

The  first  draught  shows  the  original  thought 
of  the  young  writer.     As   the  subject  presented 


^'  The    Young  Idea**  16 1 

few  ideas  to  her  mind,  she  naturally  expressed 
but  few,  and  those  few  not  particularly  enter- 
taining to  an  audience.  She  went  straight  to  the 
point,  but  it  took  less  than  half  a  minute  to  get 
there,  and  the  trip  to  be  properly  imposing  should 
consume  at  least  five.  It  was  a  happy  thought 
to  travel  back  a  few  years  and  climb  with  Na- 
poleon to  the  top  of  what  another  pupil  calls 
"  the  mountains  which  are  in  the  Alps." 

Has  the  mental  pow^r  of  the  writer  thereby 
been  increased  }  Has  her  vocabulary  been  en- 
larged, the  logical  faculty  developed,  a  good  style 
formed  ?  Are  the  conditions  of  these  feverish 
last  weeks  of  the  term  with  the  extra  labor  of 
reviews,  the  anxieties  of  examinations,  the  meas- 
urings  and  fittings  of  the  dressmaker,  favorable 
to  genuine  mental  growth  ? 

But  shall  no  compositions  be  written  and  read 
by  the  pupils,  or  being  read,  shall  they  be  given 
ill  their  original  crudity  ?  The  answer  to  this 
question  depends  wholly  upon  the  answer  to 
another,  What  is  the  object  of  the  writing  and 
reading  of  compositions  ? 

It  is  apropos  of  this  sort  of  literary  leverage 
that  Richter  writes  :  "  A  nothing  writes  to  a 
nothing ;  the  whole  affair  undertaken  by  the 
desire  of  the  teacher,  not  of  the  heart,  is  a  cer- 
tificate of  the  death  of  thoughts.  Happy  is  it  if 
the  commanding  volubility  of  the  child,  arising 
from  coldness  and  addressed  to  emptiness,  do 
not  accustom  her  to  insincerity."     But   it  does, 


1 62  *'  The   Young  Idea'' 

and  that  is  the  worst  of  it,  though  there  are 
many  other  hurtful  elements  about  it. 

Not  long  ago  Mrs.  M.  L.  Rayne,  of  the  De- 
troit School  of  Journalism,  made  this  frank  ad- 
mission to  the  Journal  of  Educaiio7i : 

"'  It  has  happened  that  I  have  been  called 
upon  many  times  in  my  life  to  write  the  gradua- 
ting essays  of  college  boys  and  girls  and  high 
school  pupils,  and  in  nearly  every  case  I  have 
acquiesced.  The  pupil  who  is  about  to  gradu- 
ate is  already  bearing  an  accumulation  of  bur- 
dens in  the  review  of  old  studies,  the  constant 
mental  strain,  the  over-taxing  of  all  the  intellect- 
ual faculties,  and  the  severe  physical  strain  which 
attends  the  closing  of  a  long  hard  season  of  in- 
tellectual labor."  After  stating  that  in  view  of 
these  circumstances  she  considered  herself  justi- 
fied in  assisting  students,  she  speaks  of  the  manner 
in  which  these  documents  are  usually  produced 
in  schools  where  there  is  no  special  composition 
teacher,  where  the  other  teachers  are  too  busy  to 
do  more  than  suggest  a  topic,  and  where  friends 
and  relatives  are  appealed  to  for  help.  *'  The 
girl  is  finally  referred  to  Irving  and  Macaulay 
for  style  and  expression.  With  the  master- 
pieces of  English  literature  before  her,  the  pupil 
at  last  produces  a  mosaic  of  thoughts  and  sen- 
tences in  which  there  is  neither  individuality, 
observation,  originality,  or  anything  but  penman- 
ship and  adaptation.  This  is  the  average  essay 
of  the  public  school  graduate." 


''  The   Young  Idea''  163 

This  is  followed  by  a  noble  protest  in  a  sub- 
sequent issue  of  the  same  journal:  ^'Granting 
all  the  circumstances,  shall  the  pupil  present 
this  essay  to  an  audience  as  her  own  ?  And 
will  any  teacher  approve  such  a  performance? 
Let  us  hope  not.  What  is  the  motive  of  such  a 
plot  ?  Is  its  design  to  save  life,  health,  wealth, 
or  education  ?  If  I  analyze  the  matter  aright, 
the  motive  can  be  at  best  but  personal  pride.  If 
you  approve  of  such  plagiarism  among  pupils 
upon  the  spur  of  pride,  how  will  you  teach  that 
a  cash  motive  is  criminal  ?  When  any  person 
encourages  pupils  to  weigh  the  claims  of  childish 
or  parental  pride  against  those  of  truth,  she  is 
teaching  lessons  all  too  often  learned  and  far 
too  often  illustrated  in  the  criminal  annals  of 
the  day." 

Are  these  the  words  of  wisdom  or  of  foolish- 
ness ?  Does  observation  and  experience  prove 
or  disprove  them  ? 

Commenting  upon  the  same  subject,  a  school 
principal,  George  W.  F.  Price  of  Nashville,  Tenn., 
writes  thus  forcibly  :  *^  Under  precisely  similar 
conditions,  while  resisting  solicitations  to  write 
essays  for  graduation,  I  have  been  led  to  give  a 
degree  of  assistance  in  the  way  of  corrections, 
emendations,  and  substitutions,  far  greater  than 
the  real  interests  of  the  pupil  required,  or  the 
principles  of  educational  philosophy  would  sanc- 
tion. Girls  often  present  commencement  essays 
at  the  close  of  a  school  career  who  have  never 


1 64  *'  The   Young  Idea:' 

once  during  their  entire  course  composed  any- 
creditable  literary  work.  As  an  exponent  of 
the  pupil's  knowledge,  it  is  unreliable  ;  as  a 
test  of  mental  discipline,  it  is  fallacious  ;  as  a 
proof  of  literary  ability,  it  is  wholly  untrust- 
worthy ;  as  an  index  of  the  kind  of  training 
which  the  school  offers,  it  has  no  value."  He 
also  proposes  a  remedy  for  these  evils  :  *'  Aban- 
don a  public  exhibition  which  tortures  the  pupil, 
annoys  the  teacher,  and  leaves  to  the  public, 
after  a  mild  thrill  of  parental  and  neighborly 
exultation,  the  shrug  of  suspicion  or  the  gibe  of 
scorn."  If  with  all  its  faults  the  first  draught  of 
the  composition  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  original 
work  the  pupil  is  able  to  do  after  the  regular 
amount  of  instruction,  why  is  it  not  as  legitimate 
a  showing  of  her  attainments  in  that  direction  as 
in  mathematics  or  the  sciences  ? 

If  the  object  is  the  entertainment  of  an  audi- 
ence, why  not  place  the  essaf  on  the  same  honest 
footing  as  the  violin  solo  or  piano  duet  ?  Nobody 
supposes  that  these  musical  performances  are 
the  result  of  school  training.  Why  should  there 
be  any  attempt  to  make  the  literary  exercises 
appear  so  ? 

A  teacher  asked  a  pupil  if  he  could  prove  the 
problem  in  division  which  he  bad  upon  his  slate. 
*'  Yes,  I  could  prove  it  easy  enough  if  it  wasn't 
all  wrong,"  was  the  answer.  The  same  trouble  is 
found  in  the  composition  problem.  The  divis- 
or,— the  teacher,  multiplied  by  the  quotient, — the 


"  The    Voting  Idea**  ^65 

composition,  would  equal  the  dividend, — the 
pupil,  if  the  process  had  been  correct.  Unfor- 
tunately the  result  is  far  in  excess  of  the  original 
amount. 

There  is  another  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
"  proving  "  this  sort  of  work.  '^  Don't  use  my 
name,"  is  the  formula  which  in  nearly  every 
letter  received  from  teachers  takes  the  place  and 
means  the  same  as  the  more  common  phrase- 
ology, "  Burn  this  as  soon  as  read."  There  is 
more  than  one  helpless  father,  widowed  sister, 
and  orphan  child  to  be  cared  for  by  devoted 
women  who  have  no  freedom  of  choice  between 
principle  and  pocket.  One  cannot  walk  bare- 
footed, no  matter  how  much  the  shoe  pinches, 
nor  rest  by  the  roadside  while  there  are  others 
to  be  carried  along  the  way. 

Impossibilities  are  attempted  in  composition 
work.  Rather  than  "  give  up  beat "  teachers 
reluctantly  put  their  own  "  shoulder-blades  to 
the  wheels,"  and  verily  we  can  all  '^  shee  them 
go  round."  But  with  what  friction, — what  wear 
and  tear  to  the  machinery  !  And  is  anybody  in 
the  world  wiser  or  better  for  this  enormous 
expenditure  of  time  and  force  ? 

How  refreshing  to  read  once  more  some  of 
the  genuine  "  composition  "  work  ;  to  turn  to  the 
rough,  uncut,  but  honest  stones,  after  the  shallow 
and  sickly  sparkle  of  the  poor  paste  diamonds. 

"  It  says  in  one  of  the  great  authors  that 
dreams  is  the  stuff  nightmares  are  made  of.     I 


i66  i^  The    Young  Idear 

have  the  nightmares.  My  grammar  says  its 
pie  grammars  don't  like  to  have  there  pies  cut. 
jim  says  my  cousin  its  hookin  the  pie  taint 
eating  it  that  makes  the  nightmares,  nightmares 
aint  as  nice  as  the  pie  and  this  is  all  I  know 
about  dreams." 

"'  Do  you  think  that  Jesus  hung  up  his  stock- 
ing Christmas  eve  to  be  filled  by  Santa  Claus  ? 
If  you  do  you  are  much  mistaken.  And  why 
did  he  not  ?  One  reason  was  that  he  had  none. 
And  why  had  he  none  ?  Because  he  was  born 
in  the  torrid  zone,  where  stockings  are  never 
used.     Nor  are  they  to  this  day." 

Still  the  art  of  composition  has  been  steadily 
improving  during  the  last  twenty  years,  if  one 
may  judge  from  the  style  of  an  ''  oration  "  pre- 
pared that  length  of  time  ago  and  delivered  at 
an  Academy  commencement, 

**  THE  ELEMENTS  AND  USES  OF    HISTORY. 

"  The  phenomena  of  nature  exists  by  the  sacred 
symbols  of  this  golden  age.  There  are  pyramids 
and  temples  of  Ucatan  seen  to  have  been  old  in 
the  days  of  Pharioh,  when  Nero,  Romilus,  and 
Sylvius  Procras  were  leaving  a  type  of  stagnation 
by  their  elemental  mystery  to  be  recorded  upon 
the  scanty  catalogue  of  the  benefactors  of  the 
human  kind.  Greece  wears  a  stain  upon  the 
annals  of  history  by  chaining  Socrates,  the  exi- 
cutioner  who  administered  that  poisonous  plant 
with  its  fatal  touch  caused  death  to  take  posses- 


"  The    Young  Idea''  167 

sion  of  a  mind  which  was  as  strong  as  a  sturdy 
oak  bursting  forth  from  a  little  acorn,  causing 
the  acuteness  of  some  happy  observer  to  reflect 
upon  the  laws  of  nature.  Napoleon,  when  the 
fortunes  of  war  overtook  him  we  find  him  incar- 
cerated in  the  gloomy  prison  wail  at  St.  Helena. 
Lafayette  went  forth  with  that  guiding  spirit 
which  conducted  him  over  the  pathless  ocean 
to  his  countries  call,  and  after  that  felicitious 
theory  he  worked  out  a  niche  that  will  radi- 
ate forever  upon  America's  brightest  pages. 
Wise  and  useful  shipmasters  were  guided  by 
the  magnet  from  off  the  shoals  and  quicksands 
so  Washingtons  history  guided  by  the  elements 
that  float  like  the  little  moats  in  the  sunbeam. 
At  the  first  struggles  of  our  national  conflicts 
our  brave  and  generous  sons  fought  upon  the 
threshold  of  liberty  bearing  in  one  hand  a 
true  spirit  of  Seventy-six  and  in  the  other 
a  banner  which  has  been  reddened  by  its  gore. 
The  heroes  who  upheld  every  intrest  of  their 
country  in  facing  death  all  along  the  peninsula 
and  victorious  over  Lee  at  Richmond  add  epi- 
taphs to  that  mournful  shaft  determined  that  no 
plume  of  her  renown  should  ever  be  defaced." 


1 68  *'  The    Young  I  dear 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

"  A  DOUBLE-SCULL    RACE." 

**  A  DOUBLE-SCULL  race,"  remarked  an  old  lady, 
catching  sight  in  the  newspaper  of  an  item  on 
the  subject.  "  Thet's  something  like.  Mebbe 
now  there'll  be  a  stop,  put  to  this  everlastin' 
talkin'  about  fillin'  childern's  heads  fuller'n  they 
can  hold.  Seems  to  me  we  don't  hear  nothin' 
else  these  days." 

^*  Cram  "  is  a  short  word,  easy  to  spell,  easy  to 
pronounce,  while  its  meaning  is  perfectly  plain 
to  Strasburg  geese  and  nineteenth-century  chil- 
dren in  all  the  civilized  countries  of  the  globe. 
It  has  also  secured  good  and  regular  standing 
in  our  dictionaries,  where  it  makes  an  innocent 
appearance  as  *'  Preparation  for  an  examination 
by  a  hasty  review  of  studies." 

So  far  as  known,  the  late  Prof.  W.  Stanley 
Jevons,  one  of  England's  most  eminent  scholars, 
is  the  only  advocate  who  has  appeared  on  behalf 
of  Cram  in  the  famous  case  of  Croaker  vs.  Cram, 
a  litigation  which  bids  fair  to  rival  that  of  Jarn- 
dyce  and  Jarndyce.  In  some  respects  it  re- 
sembles that  historic  lawsuit.  **  It  has  passed 
into  a  joke,"  for  one  thing.  "  It  still  drags  its 
weary  length  before  the  court,  perennially  hope- 
less. Even  those  who  have  contemplated  its 
history   from  the  ©utermost  circle  of  such  evil 


"  The    Young  Idea''  169 

have  been  insensibly  tempted  into  a  loose  way 
of  letting  bad  things  alone  to  take  their  own  bad 
course,  and  a  loose  belief  that  if  the  world  go 
wrong,  it  was,  in  some  off-hand  manner,  never 
meant  to  go  right.  Innumerable  children  have 
been  born  into  the  cause."  Poor  Miss  Flite 
has  the  company  of  thousands  of  similar  clients. 
Like  her  they  say,  "  I  have  the  honor  to  attend 
court  regularly — with  my  documents.  From 
whence  do  these  papers  come,  you  say  ?  That  is 
the  great  question.  I  expect  a  judgment  shortly — 
at  the  day  of  judgment." 

In  the  mean  time  the  learned  advocate  thus 
argues:  **  This  word  has  all  the  attributes  of  a 
perfect  question-beggiJig  epithet.  It  is  short,  em- 
phatic, and  happily  derived  from  a  disagreeable 
physical  metaphor.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  seeing 
that  Cram  means  two  different  things,  what  I  call 
Good  Cram  and  Bad  Cram."  Brilliant  illus- 
tration of  a  distinction  without  a  difference — 
*' what  I  call  a  Good  Evil  and  a  Bad  Evil."  This 
can  hardly  fail  to  remind  one  of  the  definition 
of  metaphysics — "  Metaphysics,  the  considera- 
tion of  immateriality,  substance  without  solidity, 
neither  large  nor  small,  hot  nor  cold,  wet  nor 
dry,  long  nor  short;  the  essence  of  an  abstrac- 
tion." 

"  All  the  world,"  some  one  says,  "  professes  to 
be  opposed  to  cramming,  yet  the  system  never- 
theless goes  on,  not  only  unchecked,  but  to  a 
greater  extent  year  after  year."     Like    malaria, 


r7o  "  The   Young  I  dear 

^'  Oh,  no,  we  never  have  any  of  it  here  !  There 
was  talk  a  spell  ago,  of  there  bein'  some  over  in 
the  other  deestrick."  Teacher's  are  the  only  ones 
to  acknowledge  its  existence — when  the  doors 
are  shut,  the  children  playing  outside,  and  the 
trustees  have  gone  home  to  dinner.  Later,  the 
pupils,  recess  finished,  return  to  the  school- 
room to  ''  study."  An  analysis  of  the  pecu- 
liar process  is  interesting.  Not  long  ago  a 
little  girl  was  '  studying  "  half-aloud  a  lesson  in 
grammar,  rocking  herself  to  and  fro,  as  her  glib 
tongue  kept  time  with  the  movement.  ^'  Appel- 
lations of  the  Deity  should  always  begin  with  a 
capital.  Appellations  of  the  Deity  should  al- 
ways begin  with  a  capital.  Appellations  of  the 
Deity  should  always  begin  with  a  capital." 

An  older  sister,  sewing  near  by,  ventured  the 
question,  *^  What  do  you  mean  by  appellations?" 
A  blank  stare.  "  I  don't  know.  That's  what 
the  book  says."  ^^  What  do  you  mean  by 
Deity  ? "  Another  stare,  equally  blank.  ^'  / 
don't  know.  Teacher  didn't  tell  us  to  learn  that. 
Don't  bother  me.  I've  got  to  study  my  lesson." 
So  the  intellectual  exercise  was  resumed,  accom- 
panied by  the  rocking  and  the  muttering,  '^  Ap- 
pellations of  the  Deity  should  always  begin 
with  a  capital,"  until  the  "lesson  "  was  declared 
"learned."  Is  it  surprising  that  from  brains 
thus  cultivated  should  issue  such  statements 
as,  "  The  head  contains  the  brains  when  there  is 
any." 


''The    Young  Idea:'  171 

"  Topacto  will  make  the  bones  weak  and  it 
will  stump  the  groth." 

*'  When  the  price  of  one  article  we  must  add  to 
find  the  costs." 

*' A  verb  is  anything  expressed  in  words." 

**  The  Saxon  Cronicle  gave  notes  to  the 
Saxons." 

'*  Orion  was  a  very  famous  Latin  astronomer." 

"A  fire  ventilates  the  fireplace  and  produces 
a  current  filled  with  hot  water  or  steam." 

*'  In  Mississippi  when  the  cotton  is  ripe,  cotton 
gin  is  poured  into  the  pods  to  take  the  seeds 
out." 

•^  The  Greek  translation  of  the  New  Testament 
was  called  Latin." 

"  John  Skeleton  satirised  the  church  and  all 
was  in  it  expressing  himself  in  a  powerful  master- 
fully way." 

But  the  learned  advocate  in  the  cause  of 
Cram  insists,  ''  Even  in  the  worst  kind  of 
Cram  the  blockhead  suffers  no  harm.  To  exer- 
cise the  memory  is  better  than  to  leave  the 
brain  wholly  at  rest."  What  a  unique  sort  of 
logic  !  We  must  either  cram  or  not  cram.  It 
is  better  to  cram  than  not  to  cram.  Therefore 
cram.  Is  this  the  strongest  argument  which 
the  counsel  for  the  defense  can  submit  to  an  en- 
lightened jury  ?  Must  it  then  resolve  itself  into 
a  choice  of  evils — cramming  or  collapse  ?  If  so, 
the  case  is  indeed  hard  for  the  complainant. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  standing  arguments  for  the 


172  '*  The   Young  Idea'' 

indestructibility  of  human  nature  that  it  has  not 
been  destroyed  by  the  assaults  of  the  schoolmas- 
ter," says  an  authority  on  this  subject,  the  Rev. 
A.  D.  Mayo,  and  we  can  imagine  the  sly  smile 
with  which  President  Chadbourne  of  Williams 
College  said  that  so  far  as  his  early  education 
w^as  concerned,  the  thing  he  was  most  thankful 
for  was  that  he  lived  so  far  from  the  schoolhouse 
that  he  was  absent  most  of  the  time. 

Richter  announced  years  ago,  "  The  greatest, 
the  most  important,  the  most  useful  rule  of 
all  education  is  not  to  gain  time  but  to  lose 
it."  If  he  were  right,  modern  educators  must 
be  all  wrong,  for  we  can  not  go  forward  and 
backward,  we  can  not  hurry  and  stand  still,  we 
can  not  eat  voraciously  and  starve  to  death,  at  the 
same  time. 

As  long  ago  as  1848,  Horace  Mann  wrote  : 
"  It  seems  to  me  that  one  of  the  greatest  errors  in 
education  at  the  present  day  is  the  desire  and 
ambition  to  teach  in  single  lessons  systems,  doc- 
trines, and  theorems  which  years  of  analysis  are 
scarcely  sufficient  to  unfold."  (Years  of  anal- 
ysis !  Why,  bless  your  heart,  the  dear  child- 
ren have  no  suspicion  of  any  such  fact.  Their 
comfortable  consciousness  of  wisdom  is  eminent- 
ly self-satisfying.  '*  Young  America  "  is  always 
*'  equal  to  the  occasion,"  or  thinks  he  is,  which  is 
probably  the  next  best  thing.)  *'  All  is  adminis- 
tered in  a  mass.  We  strive  to  introduce  knowl- 
edge   into  a  child's  mind  the  great  end  first," 


**  The   Young  Idea!'  173 

Sometimes,  though,  even  under  that  process,  it 
**  comes  out  of  the  little  end  of  the  horn,"  as — 

'^  An  ellipsis  is  an  omission  which  omits  words 
when  ellipsis  is  omission  allowable  and  supplies 
the  mind  which  is  certainty  and  readiness  not  ob- 
scuring the  sense." 

That  charming  essayist  and  keen  critic,  the 
late  Edwin  P.  Whipple,  of  Boston,  once  wrote, 
'*  The  mischief  of  intellectual  conceit  in  our  day 
consists  in  its  arresting  mental  growth  at  the 
start  by  stuffing  the  mind  with  the  husks  of  pre- 
tentious generalities,  which,  while  they  impart 
no  vital  force  and  convey  no  real  information, 
give  seeming  enlargement  to  thought  and  repre- 
sent a  seeming  opulence  of  knowledge." 

This  ^*  seeming  opulence"  is  no  unfamiliar 
sort  of  wealth,  even  to  the  most  impecunious 
instructors.     Of  such  is  : 

**  Breathing  power  is  developed  make  the  di- 
gestion stronger,  make  the  animal  heat  increased 
accumulation  of  the  fat  diminished  and  to  be  in 
a  open  air  and  to  have  lots  of  outside  exercise." 

'*  No  other  at  the  Court  could  vie  with  Sir 
Philip  Sidney  in  punctilious  adhearance  to  the 
current  rules  of  the  etiquette  of  the  Court  and 
times.  Everybody  fell  victims  to  his  suavity. 
He  was  of  the  most  accurate  and  correct  cour- 
tesy." 

Says  a  writer  in  a  late  number  of  the  Christian 
UnioHy  '*  There  is  an  insane  idea  prevalent  both 
in   and  out  of  the   school-room  that  success  in 


174  ^'' The    Young  Idea.'' 

study  is  measured  not  by  the  quality  of  knowl- 
edge acquired,  but  by  the  quantity  of  ground 
covered.  The  pupil  crams  himself  with  an  array 
of  names,  dates,  and  events.  He  can  tell  you 
the  date  of  the  Magna  Charta,  but  whether  it 
was  a  document  or  an  animal  he  hardly  knows." 
Sometimes  he  does  not  consider  it  either  the  one 
or  the  other  : 

"  Magner  Carter  was  the  place  where  the  King 
had  the  exclusive  right  to  kill  game  everywheres 
all  over  the  kingdom  and  secured  the  great  bull- 
work  to  the  English  people." 

**  Magna  Chartar  was  secured  by  king  John 
to  take  all  the  rights  away  from  the  people.  It 
was  called  Magna  Chartar  because  it  was  a  big 
oak  tree — somewhere  in  Connecticut." 

Says  Superintendent  Stone,  of  Hyde  Park, 
Mass.,  '^  The  attempt,  to  carry  so  many  bundles 
of  facts  along  ever-diverging  lines  overloads  the 
memory,  disheartens  and  disgusts  the  child." 
Sometimes  the  facts  suffer  in  their  turn.  The 
little  arms  prove  too  short  and  weak  for  the 
many  heavy  and  bulky  bundles  which  they 
strive  to  embrace.  The  contents  are  liable  .to 
be  spilled  and  thereby  to  become  more  or  less 
mixed,  as  in 

^'  Syren  pertaining  to  Syria." 

**  Hierarchy,  the  house  the  pope  lives  in." 

*'  Solution  a  compound  of  metals." 

"  You  can  remove  the  animal  from  the  bone 
by  putting  it  into  the  fire." 


"  The    Young  Idea:'  i75 

^'  The  femur  the  largest  bone  in  the  body  is 
situated  in  the  ear." 

^*  Brokerage  is  the  hay  and  straw  in  which 
brakerble  things  are  packed." 

''  Bent  is  a  participle  from  the  verb  to  be." 

Says  Dr.  Hammond  in  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly  iox  April,  1887:  ''For  children  to  be 
reduced  to  one  common  level  as  they  are  in 
our  schools  almost  without  exception,  and  to 
have  studies  crowded  upon  them  in  advance  of 
their  brain  development,  are  crimes  against  Na- 
ture which  Nature  in  her  blind  way  expiates  by 
punishing  the  wrong  person,  but  which  those 
who  know  the  right  should  promptly  expose." 

'*  Our  school-masters,"  says  Sir  John  Lubbock, 
''  too  often  act  as  if  all  school-children  were  going 
to  be  school-masters  themselves,"  and  another 
writer,  a  fierce  rebel  against  the  English  system, 
''  They  insist  upon  the  infant  mind  gulping  down 
tasteless  masses  of  instructional  porridge."  Dick- 
ens has  graphically  described  one  of  these  En- 
glish teachers  :  *'One  of  a  hundred  and  forty 
others  turned  out  at  the  same  time  from  the  same 
factory  on  the  same  principles,  like  so  many 
piano-forte  legs.  He  had  been  put  through  an 
immense  variety  of  paces  and  had  answered 
volumes  of  head-breaking  questions.  Orthog- 
raphy, etymology,  syntax,  and  prosody,  biogra- 
phy, astronomy,  geography,  and  general  cos- 
mography, compound  proportion,  algebra,  land 
surveying  and  leveling,  vocal   music,  and  draw- 


176  *'  The   Young  Idea'* 

ing  from  models,  were  all  at  the  end  of  his  ten 
fingers.  He  had  taken  the  bloom  off  the  higher 
branches  of  mathematics,  physical  science, 
French,  German,  Latin,  and  Greek.  He  knew 
all  about  all  the  watersheds  of  all  the  world  and 
all  the  histories  of  all  the  peoples  and  all  the 
names  of  all  the  rivers  and  mountains  and  all 
the  productions,  manners,  and  customs  of  all 
the  countries  and  all  their  boundaries  and  bear- 
ings on  all  the  points  of  the  compass."  Mr. 
M'Choakumchild  is  a  type  of  a  class  of  teachers 
so  "  educated,"  in  America  as  well  as  in  Europe, 
and  who,  in  attempting,  from  the  best  of  mo- 
tives, to  drag  children  along  with  them,  as  they 
stride  in  their  intellectual  seven-league  boots 
over  the  province  of  all  knowledge,  seldom  real- 
ize the  desperate  endeavors  made  by  the  pigmies 
who  are  trying  to  keep  step  with  them.  These 
are  the  instructors  who  perfectly  agree  with  Mrs. 
Pipchin  in  her  theory  of  education  as  unfolded 
to  Mr.  Dombey,  *' There  is  a  great  deal  of  non- 
sense and  worse — talked  about  young  people 
not  being  pressed  too  hard  at  first,  and  being 
tempted  on  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  sir.  It  never 
was  thought  of  in  my  time,  and  it  has  no  busi- 
ness to  be  thought  of  now.  My  opinion  is,  '  keep 
'em  at  it '  !  "  It  is  in  reference  to  this  system  that 
another  English  writer,  himself  a  famous  teacher, 
thus  expresses  himself:  '^  I  say  deliberately  that 
there  are  persons  who  really  deserve  penal  servi- 
tude for  provoking  what   are   neither  more  nor 


''  The    Young  Idea'*  177 

less  than  brutal  assaults  on  the  brains  and  nerves 
of  innocent  children." 

Squeers's  school  has  been  execrated  ever 
since  it  was  photographed  and  held  up  to 
public  view,  but  in  some  respects  the  Squeers 
system  is  far  ahead  of  Mr.  M'Choakumchild's. 
*'We  go  on  the  practical  mode  of  teach- 
ing, Nickleby,  the  regular  education  system. 
C-1-e-a-n,  clean,  verb  active,  to  make  bright,  to 
scour.  W-i-n,  wind,  d-e-r,  der,  winder,  a  case- 
ment. When  the  boy  knows  this  out  of  a  book,  he 
goes  and  does  it.  When  he  has  learned  that 
botteney  is  a  knowledge  of  plants,  he  goes  and 
knows  'em.  That's  our  system,  Nickleby.  What 
do  you  think  of  it  ?"  To  any  one  who  thinks  of  it 
at  all,  it  would  seem  that  an  occasional  chance  to 
exchange  books  and  slates  for  scouring  cloth  and 
trowel,  and  an  opportunity  for  taking  object  les- 
sons out  of  doors  might  prove  preferable  to  some 
other  systems  which  are  held  in  higher  repute. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  of  opinion  concern- 
ing the  amount  of  damage  done  by  the  cram- 
ming process.  One  writer  thus  holds  forth  on  the 
''  Terrible  Results  of  Over-Study":  ^'  It  is  get- 
ting tcf  be  a  well-accepted  proposition  that  all 
children  are  simply  mad  to  study  themselv^es 
into  mental  paralysis  and  need  to  be  held  back 
by  main  force  from  knowing  so  much  that  they 
will  'bust.'  To  be  sure  we  have  never  met 
any  of  this  sort  of  children  ourselves,  and  when 
we  hunt  for  them  they  are  all  in  some  other  city 


lyS  ''  The    Young  Idea'" 

a  long  distance  off  ;  the  sort  we  know  require 
much  labor  and  occasionally  a  club  to  encourage 
them  to  know  anything  at  all.  But  this  is  now 
diabolical  heresy  and  we  do  penance  by  repub- 
lishing from  the  Journal  of  Education  the  follow- 
ing genuine  composition  written  in  1879,  by  a 
Boston  school  girl  in  one  of  the  best  schools,  who 
was  evidently  ruining  lier  health  by  intellectual 
exertion  :  *  I  would  like  to  tell  you  what  I  have 
learned  about  the  ruminous  the  cow  is  a  domes- 
tic animal  and  the  cow  has  four  stumachs  the 
cow  is  a  domestic  or  tame  animal.  The  cows 
eyes  are  made  so  that  they  can  see  back  of 
themselves  has  well  as  forward  and  Sidew^aysthe 
cow  is  found  in  every  Country.  The  cows  horns 
are  made  out  of  buttons  and  knife  handles. 
The  cow  chew  gress  and  vetuable.  The  cow 
skin  is  made  out  of  beef.  The  cow  is  divid 
into  three  groups.  The  cow  is  the  most  useful 
animal  the  cow  is  a  clothen  foothed  animal.  In 
side  of  the  cow  hon  is  a  pith.  It  goes  into  the 
first  Stumach  where  it  is  moisen  and  then  it  goes 
into  the  second  Stumach  it  is  soken,  and  then  it 
goes  into  the  three  Stumach  where  it  is  made  into 
balls,  then  it  comes  into  the  mouth  wehr»it  chew 
again,  and  then  goes  into  the  fourth  Stumach.'  " 
Few  children '*  bust "  as  far  as  heard  from, 
probably  from  successful  use  of  main  force,  while 
the  sort  that  requires  the  '^  occasional  club " 
is  by  no  means  rare.  But  joking  aside,  what 
are  the  facts  of  the  case?     Even  some  teachers 


''The    Young  I  dear  i79 

assert  that  the  injury  done  to  children  is  wholly- 
due  to  social  dissipations  of  various  sorts.  But 
from  whence  come  the  children  who  fill  our 
public  schools  ?  Do  they  not  represent  the 
middle  and  lowest  classes  of  the  community  ? 
An  impression  has  somehow  gained  ground  that 
social  dissipations  are  indulged  in  principally  by 
the  class  which  patronizes  fashionable  boarding 
and  private  schools  ;  but  this  must  be  a  mistake. 
Then  it  is  the  children  of  our  clerks  and  trades- 
men, mechanics  and  laborers,  who  are  brought  up 
in  these  lives  of  luxurious  and  injurious  ease  ; 
who  are  at  a  constant  revel  of  balls  and  parties, 
theatres  and  operas  ;  eating  rich  suppers  every 
night  ;  partaking  of  quail  on  toast,  stewed  terrapin 
and  Welsh  rarebit  at  irregular  intervals  through 
the  day,  feasting  on  miscellaneous  pastry,  and  al- 
ways having  fancy  boxes  of  confectionery  heaped 
upon  the  toilette  tables  of  their  boudoirs. 

Miss  Julia  Richman  asserts  as  the  results  of 
her  experience  for  fifteen  years  in  a  New  York 
grammar  school,  ^^  Worriment,  overstudy,  loss 
of  appetite,  and  broken  sleep  are  the  rule  and 
not  the  exception  with  girls  in  the  First  Grade 
classes." 

But  let  the  schools  stand  acquitted  of  all  re- 
sponsibility in  the  matter,  since  it  is  not  the  re- 
quirements of  the  school-room,  but  social  dissi- 
pation which  is  the  cause  of  this  lamentable 
state  of  things. 

Yet  a  host  of  fathers  and  mothers  indignantly 


i8o  *'  The    Young  Hear 

protest  against  this  charge  of  social  dissipa- 
tion,— working  men  and  women  who  are  waiting 
as  patiently  as  they  possibly  can  for  their  boys 
and  girls  to  graduate  from  the  public  school 
that  they  may  become  bread-winners  in  their  turn. 
These  parents  tell  sorrowful,  but,  of  course, 
grossly  improbable,  tales  of  long  hours  of  home 
study  ;  restless  nights,  with  no  appetite  for  break- 
fast ;  headaches,  lassitude,  irritability  ;  feverish 
anxiety  accompanying  examination  days  ;  posi- 
tive agony  from  fear  of  losing  "  marks,"  being 
*'  marked  down,"  having  ^'  so  low  a  per  cent,  that 
she  can't  pass,"  (it  is  usually  '^  She  ") — these  un- 
reasonable fathers  and  mothers,  disturbers  of  the 
public  peace  and  the  public  school  system,  do 
not  hesitate  to  declare,  in  the  most  emphatic  and 
shameless  manner,  that  these  things  are  familiar 
experiences  in  the  majority  of  households. 

"  My  daughter  has  four  lessons  to  prepare 
every  day,"  one  of  these  mothers  boldly  asserted. 
''Yesterday  her  algebra  alone  kept  her  busy  till 
ten  o'clock  at  night,  and  her  father  helped  her  all 
the  evening.  She  did  not  even  look  at  her  other 
lessons,  and  she's  so  behindhand  in  her  work 
that  she  is  worrying  herself  to  death  for  fear  she 
won't  be  promoted."  This  was  said  of  a  sensi- 
tive, conscientious,  rapidly-growing  girl  of  fif- 
teen, having  before  her  a  future  with  all  its 
probabilities  of  household  and  maternal  cares, 
with  all  the  demands  which  our  civilization  and 
society  make  upon  the  woman  of  to-day,  and  her 


"  The    Young  Idea:'  i8i 

mother  did  not  hesitate  to  affirm  in  the  most  un- 
blushing manner,  as  if  she  really  believed  that 
she  were  telling  the  truth  and  expected  others  to 
believe  it  also,  that  her  daughter's  case  was  not 
the  only  one  of  the  same  sort. 

'HVhy  don't  you  complain  to  the  principal?'* 
"  Well,  I  did  write  a  note  to  him  awhile  ago  to 
see  what  could  be  done,  and  he  said  the  only 
thing  for  her  to  do,  if  she  could  not  keep  up  with 
the  class,  was  to  go  into  a  lower  one.  Of  course 
•she  wouldn't  do  that." 

^^  Why  don't  you  take  her  out  of  school  ? " 
"  Oh,  I  can't  do  that,  for  she's  going  to  try  for 
a  teacher's  position  after  she  graduates.  She 
must  do  something,  of  course,"  and  this  garru- 
lous mother  really  seemed  to  think  that  the  per- 
plexing responsibility  thus  laid  upon  her  was  not 
only  more  than  she  could  bear,  but  that  it  was 
in  some  way  an  imposition  and  an  outrage  grow- 
ing out  of  a  defective  school  system. 

"Over-work  !  "remarked  another  irate  parent, 
"  There  is  precious  little  over-work  in  some  of 
our  schools.  There  is  not  half  enough  in  some 
of  them.  But  it's  the  over-crowding,  over-hurry- 
ing, and  over-worrying,  that  keeps  my  children 
half  the  time  as  cross  as  little  bears,  though  I 
can't  see  that  they  are  learning  much  of  any- 
thing." 

Mrs.  Mary  J.  Holmes  ventures  the  heretical 
assertion  in  a  leading  St.  Louis  newspaper  :  **  I 
believe  there  were  more  really  thorough  scholars 


1 82  *^  The   Young  I  dear 

turned  out  from  the  schools  years  ago  than  are 
produced  to-day  with  all  the  modern  improve- 
ments in  teaching.  The  fault  lies  in  the  system 
which  crowds  into  four  or  five  years  what  ought 
to  occupy  double  that  length  of  time,  and  the 
girl  forgets  to-morrow  what  she  has  learned 
to-day.  I  know  perfectly  well  that  I  shall  be 
called  an  old  fogy  if  not  a  crank"  (she  may  be 
reasonably  sure  of  both  titles)  ^*  if  I  insist  that 
the  forcing  system  is  conducive  neither  to  a  good 
education,  good  health,  or  beauty  of  face  or 
form.  The  girl  bends  over  her  books  until  the 
words  run  together  and  her  eyes  grow  dim  and 
her  mind  dimmer,  so  that  she  has  no  clear  con- 
ception of  what  she  has  learned,  or  rather  com- 
mitted, for  oftentimes  it  is  nothing  more  than  a 
committal  to  be  repeated  parrot- like  next  day 
and  then  lost  entirely,  as  water  runs  through  a 
sieve.  The  stomach  cannot  be  overcrowded 
without  rebelling,  nor  can  the  brains  be  over- 
taxed without  a  protest ;  and  a  tired  brain  is 
harder  to  manage  than  an  overloaded  stomach. 
Look  at  some  of  the  girls  who  are  struggling 
with  too  many  and  too  long  lessons,  trying  to 
keep  up  and  pass  from  grade  to  grade  so  as  to 
be  graduated  at  last  and  declared  educated. 
Hollow-eyed,  haggard  and  pale,  and  often  high- 
shouldered  from  stooping  so  constantly  over  their 
books,  they  seem  to  have  lost  all  the  beauty  and 
elasticity  of  youth,  and  to  be  growing  prema- 
turely old. 


''  The    Young  Idear  ^^3 

'*  A  young  married  woman,  who  was  for  years 
a  student  in  a  graded  school,  told  me  that  her 
room-mate  was  in  the  habit  of  taking  very  strong 
tea  at  night  in  order  to  keep  herself  awake,  her 
lessons  were  so  long  and  difficult.  What  kind  of 
nerves  or  health  would  a  girl  have  who  con- 
tinued this  practice  for  any  length  of  time  ?  No 
wonder  that  so  many  break  down  with  nervous 
prostration,  forgetting  all  they  have  learned  and 
unable  to  grasp  anything  clearly  and  well.  A 
married  lady,  whose  children  have  been  through 
the  cramming  process,  likens  it  to  a  salad,  which 
I  think  is  a  good  name.  A  brain  salad,  com- 
posed of  rhetoric  and  philosophy  and  algebra 
and  geometry,  German  and  Latin,  and  a  mul- 
tiplicity of  other  branches,  which  the  girl  must 
take  up  if  she  would  at  the  last  be  graduated  and 
receive  her  diploma.  And  in  not  one  of  these  is 
she  thorough.  For  how  can  she  know  much  of 
a  subject  to  which  she  has  given  only  three  or 
six  months'  time  ?  " 

Wherein  lies  the  difference  between  those 
schools  of  years  ago  to  which  Mrs.  Holmes 
alludes,  and  those  of  our  day, — carefully  graded, 
placed  in  handsome,  commodious  buildings  ;  with 
every  provision  for  physical  comfort  ;  with  every 
known  invention  and  appliance  for  intellectual 
labor?  One  of  our  best  educators  thus  answers 
the  question  :  ^'Neither  schools,  teachers,  nor 
brains  were  better  xsx  the  days  of  the  district 
school  than  they  are  now.      But  those  brains 


1^4  ''  The    Young  Idear 

were  not  distracted  with  a  vast  number  of  sub- 
jects, nor  continually  worried  over  the  *  examin- 
ation '  and  '  per  cent.'  which  like  the  car  of  Jug- 
gernaut our  children  of  to-day  see  mercilessly  ap- 
proaching to  roll  over  them  at  the  end  of  the 
term." 

Montesquieu  asserted,  "  The  love  of  study 
is  in  us  almost  the  eternal  passion.  "  What  do 
our  schools  accomplish  in  creating  and  fostering 
this  love?  '^We  have  only,"  says  Ascot  R. 
Hope,  **  our  staid  and  formal  methods  of  in- 
struction. In  the  ears  of  our  young,  the  songs 
of  the  nurses  are  accompanied — or  shall  we  say 
drowned — by  the  creaking  of  our  rusty  barrel- 
organs  whereon  time-honored  educational  for- 
mulas are  ground  out  with  due  solemnity." 

But  granting  that  no  case  of  hydrophobia,  de- 
lirium tremens,  or  progressive  locomotor  ataxia, 
has  ever  been  traced  directly  to  the  "cram- 
ming "  in  the  schools  ;  granting,  too,  that  all  the 
pupils  grow  rapidly  in  grace  of  soul  and  body, 
what  is  to  be  said  of  their  growth  in  knowledge 
at  the  same  time  ? 

The  valedictorian  of  a  class  stands  as  its  re- 
presentative. Here  are  the  words  of  one  who 
had  filled  that  position  both  in  the  grammar 
school  and  in  the  high  school  from  which  she 
had  graduated  four  years  later:  ''All  this  talk 
about  'cramming*  in  our  schools  is  just  as  true 
as  it  can  be,  I  wish  more  would  be  said  about 
it.     The  way  weVe  been   rushed  through  these 


"  The    Young  Idea:'  185 

last  five  years, — why,  you  have  no  idea  !  It's 
been  dreadfully  hard  on  some  of  the  girls,  but 
not  one  of  them  has  really  broken  down — yet. 
The  worst  of  it  all  is  that  there's  been  so  little 
time  for  explanations  and  reviews  that  some  of 
the  girls  feel  as  if  they  didn't  know  anything  !  " 
with  indescribable  empliasis  on  the  last  word. 

Now  should  any  young  woman  be  allowed  to 
talk  in  that  reckless,  exaggerated,  and  prepos- 
terously untruthful  way  ?  It  is  an  incendiary 
sort  of  speech.  The  words  might  do  much  mis- 
chief if  overheard  by  some  of  the  unprincipled 
radicals,  the  blood-thirsty  educational  anarchists 
who  are  aching  for  an  opportunity  to  destroy  the 
true,  the  beautiful,  the  good,  as  represented  by 
our  flourishing  institutions  of  learning.  The 
city,  after  educating  her,  should  muzzle  her,  lest 
she  damage  its  dearest  interests. 

At  the  same  time  one  is  forced  to  admit  that 
it  is  this  sort  of  ''  education  "  which  leaves  a 
pupil  so  unfamiliar  with  the  dictionary  that  its 
most  simple  signs  and  abbreviations  are  as  unin- 
telligible to  him  as  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  ; 
which  renders  him  as  helpless  in  a  library 
as  if  he  were  in  a  Roman  catacomb,  and 
finds  him  plunged  into  confusion  worse  con- 
founded before  a  shelf  of  cyclopedias  and  ref- 
erence books. 

It  is  this  sort  of  education  also  which  results 
in  a  pupil  being  unable  to  tell  what  per  cent,  is 
gained  or  lost  in   a  mercantile  transaction  be- 


1 86  ''  The    Young  Idea.'' 

cause  the  amount  is  more  or  less  than  the  stand- 
ard one  hundred  ;  to  calculate  on  the  quantity  of 
brick  required  to  build  a  wall,  oblivious  of  the 
fact  that  most  walls  have  height  as  well  as 
length  and  breadth  ;  to  estimate  on  the  yards  of 
calico  necessary  for  a  bed-quilt,  ignoring  the 
item  that  bed-quilts  in  general  have  two  sides  ; 
to  assume  that  in  the  poem  of  Maud  MuUer,  the 
roofs,  ''  white  from  their  hill-slopes  looking 
down,"  were  covered  with  snow,  although  the 
heroine  of  the  story  was,  at  that  same  minute 
"raking  the  meadows  sweet  with  hay";  that 
"  the  Olympian  games  were  announced  by  the 
newspapers  because  a  herald  went  through  all 
the  cities,"  and  that  *' philosophical  histories  run 
back  to  the  time  years  and  years  before  there 
was  anybody  or  anything  happened." 

*'  Knowledge  is  of  two  kinds,"  said  Dr. 
Johnson.  *'We  know  a  subject  ourselves  or 
we  know  where  we  can  find  some  information 
upon  it";  and  another  wise  man,  "To  know 
where  to  look  for  what  we  don't  know,  is  the 
next  best  thing  to  having  the  facts  in  memory. 
It  would  be  as  reasonable  for  a  man  to  try  to  own 
everything  that  he  could  by  any  possibility  want, 
so  as  not  to  patronize  the  grocer  and  butcher,  as 
to  try  to  know  everything  so  as  not  to  be  obliged 
to  consult  books  and  libraries."  Anna  C.  Brack- 
ett  of  New  York,  who  is  well  known  as  one  of 
our  most  wide-awake  and  independent,  as  well 
as  successful  teachers,  says  in  effect:  "  Books  are 


''  The    Young  Idea'*  1S7 

made  to  keep  facts  in.  Why  should  I  try  lo 
keep  them  all  in  my  head  ?  I  have  other 
uses  for  my  brains.  If  I  want  a  fact,  I  know 
where  to  go  for  it,  and  I  intend  that  my  pupils 
shall." 

*'  When  you  know  a  thing,  to  know  that  you 
know  it,  and  when  you  do  not  know  a  thing,  to 
allow  that  you  do  not  know  it,  this,"  says  Con- 
fucius, "  is  knowledge,"  yet  not  one  pupil  in 
one  hundred  will  ever  make  to  a  question  the 
wise  answer,  ^'  I  do  not  know,"  or  leave  a  blank 
line  upon  an  examination  paper. 

"  Here  we  see  most  distinctly,"  says  Herbert 
Spencer,  **  the  vice  of  our  educational  system.  It 
neglects  the  plant  for  the  flowers"  (and  such 
flowers  !)  "  and  in  anxiety  for  elegance  it  for- 
gets substance.  So  overwhelming  is  the  in- 
fluence of  established  routine  ;  so  terribly  in 
our  education  does  the  ornamental  override  the 
useful !  "  How  far  some  of  our  results  are  to 
be  considered  ornamental,  or  beautiful,  is  a 
matter  upon  which  all  might  not  agree,  but  we 
probably  shall  not  disagree  on  one  point, — that 
very  little  of  our  **  ornamental "  education  will 
ever  verify  the  words  of  Schiller, 

**  What  as  Beauty  here  is  won 
We  shall  as  Truth  in  some  hereafter  know." 

Many  of  our  colleges  are  doing,  to-day,  work 
supposed  to  be  done  in  our  high  schools,  and 
even  in  our  grammar  schools.  It  is  not  always 
a  safe  or  an  easy  operation  to  tear  out  and  re- 


1 88  <'  The    Young  Idea'' 

construct  the  foundations  of  a  dwelling  after 
the  family  has  moved  in  and  settled  down.  One 
of  the  professors  at  Cornell  University  thus  pro- 
tests :  "  The  examinations  held  in  our  colleges 
indicate  defects  in  our  public  school  system  ; 
these  defects  are  found  in  familiar  subjects,  and 
not  merely  in  the  more  difficult.  The  high 
schools  must  meet  the  just  demands  of  the 
colleges  or  their  work  will  devolve  upon  private 
and  endowed  schools.  The  evils  of  our  present 
system  are  due  to  a  dissipation  of  attention 
through  a  multiplicity  of  studies." 

As  for  the  teachers,  ground  between  the  upper 
and    the  nether  mill-stones  of  Cram    and  Con- 
science, many  a  one  among  them  can  cry  : 
**  My  nature  is  subdued 

To  what  it  works  in,  like  the  dyer's  hand  ; 

Pity  me  then,  and  wish  I  were  renewed." 

Some  of  them  can  testify  to  the  truth  of  the 
statement  made  by  Milton's  fallen  angel,  that 
^^  our  torments  may  in  timebecome  our  elements." 

Our  public  school  system  has  gradually  devel- 
oped into  an  enormous  and  elaborate  machine 
which  works  with  the  precision  of  a  fine  engine, 
and,  as  relentlessly  as  the  engine,  grinds  to 
powder  anything  which  interfers  with  its  pistons 
and  wheels.  Swift  and  perpetual  motion  of  the 
machine  is  the  object  aimed  at.  The  people 
stand  around  it,  look  at  it,  wonder  at  it,  specu- 
late about  it,  many  admiring  it,  some  even  dar- 
ing to  find  fault  with  it,  but  no  attempt  is  made 


"  The   Young  I  dear  189 

to  slacken  its  speed  or  change  its  mode  of  mo- 
tion. No  blood  is  visible,  and  if  any  bones  are 
broken  the  sound  is  lost  in  the  ceaseless  whirring 
of  the  wheels.  There  is  never  a  call  for  an 
ambulance,  and  no  hospital  has  ever  been  erected 
near  it.  And  the  splendid  specimens  that  the 
engine  turns  out  I  Look  at  the  finished  articles 
when  they  are  arranged  in  orderly  rows  and 
placed  on  annual — or  semi-annual — exhibition. 
There  are  only  a  few  broken  pieces — so  far — in 
this  array  of  complete  and  polished  figures. 

Meanwhile  we  occasionally  read  strange  state- 
ments in  our  educational  papers. 

"  In  the  new  plan  of  studies  recently  adopted  in 
Prussia  for  the  superior  school  of  girls  there  is 
a  marked  decrease  in  the  number  of  studies  and 
of  hours  of  home  study,  while  more  hours  are 
assigned  to  manual  work  and  physical  exer- 
cises." 

*'  The  Swiss  Minister  of  Instruction  has  under- 
taken a  revision  of  the  law  regulating  higher 
education,  on  the  ground  that  the  present  code  is 
not  based  on  sound  psychological  principles,  and 
that  it  ignores,  almost  entirely,  the  natural  de- 
velopment of  the  mind.  Among  other  changes 
proposed  is  a  reduction  of  the  time  given  to  the 
classics." 

"  The  subject  of  over-pressure,  after  a  tem- 
porary lull,  is  reviving  in  Germany.  An  appeal 
to  the  public  has  been  signed  by  seventy  leading 
men  in  German-speaking  countries.     They  pro- 


190  *'  The    Youfig  Idea." 

pose  to  address  enquiries  upon  the  subject  to 
the  most  eminent  thinkers  of  Germany,  Austria, 
and  Switzerland, and  to  publish  the  opinions  and 
information  elicited  thereby.  They  declare  that 
the  pale  cheeks,  the  increase  of  nervous  debility, 
the  precocity  of  children,  are  so  many  silent  wit- 
nesses against  the  modern  system  of  education, 
and  there  is  a  deep  conviction  among  the  wisest 
thinkers  of  our  time  that  neither  the  scholastic 
nor  the  domestic  training  of  our  youth  is  tend- 
ing to  the  development  of  a  race  sound  in  mind 
and  body." 

"  We  do  not,"  says  the  Andover  Review^  '*  over- 
look the  many  excellencies  of  our  school  system. 
We  recognize  not  only  its  educational,  but  also 
its  social  and  political  advantages.  We  have  no 
sympathy  with  those  who  see  nothing  to  praise 
and  everything  to  condemn.  But  neither  do  we 
concur  in  the  opinion  that  the  public  school  is 
the  chief  glory  of  America.  So  extensive  a 
system  must  have  some  drawbacks.  It  is  our 
decided  opinion,  however,  that  there  are  some 
evils  which  are  more  than  incidental,  and  that  it 
is  the  duty  of  those  who  make  education  their 
business  to  modify  the  system  at  the  necessary 
points." 


**  The   Young  I  dear  ^9^ 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

*^  WHAT    YOU    don't  KNOW." 

Dr.  Wm.  B.  Harlow,  of  Syracuse,  New  York, 
thus  discourses  in  one  of  the  educational  maga- 
zines upon  the  pupils'  dreaded  Day  of  Judg- 
ment :  "  Hair  is  made  to  stand  on  end,  presum- 
ably for  a  free  passage  of  ideas;  heads  are  held 
together  as  if  to  prevent  them  from  bursting. 
Some  calm  spirits  are  attacking  the  examination 
paper  with  the  greatest  deliberation;  others  rush 
madly  at  it  determined  to  throttle  the  beast  at 
once.  Some  sit  helplessly  back  in  pathetic  des- 
pair. The  faces  of  others  gleam  with  satisfac- 
tion as  they  read  over  just  the  questions  they 
had  prepared  upon.  Others  are  looking  fur- 
tively around  as  if  to  discover  whether  the  coast 
is  clear  for  examining  certain  formulae  inscribed 
in  microscopic  characters  on  cuffs  and  finger- 
nails. Some  are  eating  pencil-tops  and  others 
seem  to  be  writing  with  their  noses." 

Can  any  teacher  fail  to  recognize  this  picture  of 
a  class  which  has  just  stepped  across  the  threshold 
of  the  Torture  Chamber,  regarding  with  varied 
expressions  of  the  countenance  the  intellectual 
racks  and  thumb-screws  cunningly  devised  to 
extract  information  from  their  reluctant  brains? 
A  composite  photograph  of  such  a  group  would 
certainly  be  a  curiosity. 


192  "  The    Yoimg  I  dear 

To  write  a  composition,  to  pass  an  examina- 
tion,— these  are  two  ordeals  which  strike  terror 
to  the  souls  of  all  school  children,  yet  which,  like 
war,  count  their  victims  by  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands. 

"  Examination  is  finding  out  what  you  dont 
know,"  wrote  one  of  the  lambs  prepared  for 
the  sacrifice.  Possibly  the  unwillingness  of  the 
pupil  to  display  his  ignorance  may  account  for 
his  dread  of  the  finding  out. 

*'  My  young  friends,  there  is  a  pittomless  bot," 
impressively  quoted  a  speaker  somewhat  flustered 
at  being  unexpectedly  called  upon  for  a  speech 
before  a  Sunday-school  audience.  It  is  into  this 
gulf  of  dark  despair  that  the  mere  mention 
of  compositions  and  examinations — these  two 
necessary  educational  processes — appears  to 
plunge  the  young  souls,  one  of  whom  lately  wrote 
surreptitiously  upon  a  blackboard  a  variation  of 
the  first  two  lines  of  Luther's  famous  hymn, 

**  The  Day  of  Wrath — examination  day, 
When  all  my  knowledge  vanishes  away. " 

Prof.  Jevons  in  an  article  published  in  Mind 
more  than  ten  years  ago  declared  :  "There  is  no 
difficulty  in  seeing  what  period  of  life  the  exami- 
nation system  has  now  reached.  It  is  that  critical 
age  at  which  its  progress  is  so  marked  as  to  raise 
wide-spread  irritation." 

But  he  further  states  with  depressing  truthful- 
ness, '^  Parents  and  the  public  have  little  idea  how 


*'  The    Yoi^ng  Idear  i93 

close  a  resemblance  there  is  between  teaching 
and  writing  on  the  sands  of  the  sea  unless  there 
is  a  distinct  capacity  for  learning  on  the  part  of 
the  pupil,  or  some  system  of  examination  and 
reward  to  force  the  pupil  to  apply.  I  hold  that 
examination  is  one  of  the  chief  elements  of  an 
effective  education.  I  hold  that  the  agony  of 
the  examination  room  is  an  anticipation  of  the 
struggles  of  life.  Examination  represents  the 
really  active,  grinding  process  in  the  pupil's 
mind  ;  the  active,  as  opposed  to  the  passive,  part 
of  education." 

The  teacher,  who,  under  the  inspiration  of 
Prof.  Jevons's  emphatic  words,  climbs  a  mental 
Mount  Pisgah,  determined  to  take  another  and 
more  hopeful  view  of  the  Promised  Land,  is 
again  prostrated  in  the  Valley  of  Humiliation 
by  the  following  assortment  of  metaphors: 
*'  Labor  spent  on  the  prescribed  courses  of 
study  has  left  so  much  work  untouched,  that 
spur,  and  goad,  and  gallop  must  finish  the  rest. 
The  examination  questions,  like  so  many  sharp 
hooks,  are  drawn  backward  and  forward 
through  the  lacerated  fibre  of  mind  in  the 
attempt  to  grapple  some  fact  memorized  with 
sufficient  coherence  to  permit  of  its  being 
dragged  forth.  The  examiaers  are  made  into  a 
class  of  respectable  rag-pickers,  the  respecta- 
bility arising  from  the  fact  that  the  probes,  in- 
stead of  rooting  about  in  ash-barrels,  are  thrust 
into  vital  processes  and  living  sensibilities." 


1 94  ''  The   Young  Idea.** 

A  school-boy  once  composed  the  following: 
''  Wendill  Philips  used  to  explode  with  elo- 
quence when  he  talked  to  people  about  how 
wicked  it  was  to  keep  slaves  and  things  and 
grayhouns  to  settum  onto."  Our  attacker  of 
the  examination  system  appears  to  have  ex- 
ploded in  the  same  fashion  and  in  an  equally 
righteous  cause,  although  his  equestrian,  anatom- 
ical, and  ash-barrel  figures  suggest  the  sen- 
tence— and  have  much  of  its  effect, — ''  I  smell  a 
rat  and  see  it  in  the  air,  but  I'll  nip  it  in  the 
bud  ! " 

Betw^een  Prof.  Jevons  at  one  extreme,  and 
this  Chicago  critic  at  the  other,  stand  a  host  of 
perplexed  and  thoughtful  educators,  trying  to 
reach  some  solution  of  the  problem  presented  in 
the  word  "  Examinations."  Prof.  Huxley  said 
nearly  fifteen  years  ago  :  '*  Examination,  like 
fire,  is  a  good  servant,  but  a  bad  master,  and 
there  seems  to  me  some  danger  of  its  becoming 
our  master.  Students  appear  to  become  deteri- 
orated by  the  constant  effort  to  pass  this  or 
that  examination,  just  as  we  hear  of  men's  brains 
becoming  affected  by  the  daily  necessity  of 
catching  a  train.  They  work  to  pass,  not  to 
knows  and  outraged  Science  takes  her  revenge. 
They  do  pass  and  they  don't." 

Col.  Parker  says:  **  I  believe  that  the  greatest 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  real  teaching  to-day  is 
the  standard  of  examinations.  Those  who 
understand  children  will  readily  appreciate  the 


"  The    Yotmg  Idea''  195 

excitement  and  strain  under  which  they  labor 
when  their  fate  depends  upon  the  correct 
answering  of  ten  disconnected  subjects."  He 
thinks  that  many  of  them  do  their  worst,  instead 
of  their  best,  under  such  circumstances,  because 
they  are  so  highly-wrought.  Does  not  every 
teacher  know  that  there  are  cases  of  this  kind  ? 
It  is  not  a  matter  of  opinion  but  a  matter  of 
fact.  Many  times,  too,  the  teacher  is  surprised 
to  find  that  the  paper  of  one  of  his  best  scholars 
falls  below  that  of  an  inferior  pupil,  the  latter 
less  disturbed,  perhaps,  by  the  examination 
atmosphere,  or  better  able  to  work  under 
stimulus.  Mr.  S.  C.  Stone,  principal  of  one  of 
the  Boston  schools,  asks,  "  How  are  these  tests 
regarded  ?  All  parties  look  forward  to  them 
with  more  or  less  anxiety,  and  many  make 
strenuous  efforts  to  prepare  for  them.  The 
result  is  hurry,  worry,  rush,  cram  for  weeks." 
Truly,  this  is  a  desirable  state  of  things  !  Is  it 
not  also  the  truth  of  the  majority  of  our  schools? 
Ask  the  teachers  ;  ask  the  parents  ;  ask  the 
pupils  ;  don't  ask  "  the  committee  man," — he 
knows  nothing  about  it. 

Miss  Mary  E.  Burt,  of  Chicago,  thus  analyzes 
the  effect  of  ^*  marking "  which  is  an  hourly 
operation  in  most  schools,  and  which  necessarily 
accompanies  the  examination  system :  "  Chil- 
dren have  been  marked  to  death,  there  is  no 
doubt  about  that.  The  mark,  like  the  old 
country    school-master's    whip,    has  hung   over 


ig6  **  27ie   Youfig  Idea.*' 

their  heads  until  it  has  become  the  one  thing  of 
importance.  The  sign  of  an  idea  has  come  to 
take  the  place  of  the  idea  itself.  It  is  pitiful, 
the  way  children  are  taught  to  look  upon  marks. 
The  system  has  corrupted  the  minds  and  the 
conversation  of  children.  "  What  is  my  mark?  " 
is  the  important  question,  not  *'What  idea  is 
there  worth  getting  in  my  lesson  ? "  Listen  to 
two  children  who  have  been  reading  Gray's 
Elegy.  They  say  no  more  about  the  Elegy 
than  they  would  say  about  a  stick  of  wood  if 
they  had  so  exciting  a  topic  for  their  lesson. 
The  whole  talk  is  about  their  'mark.'  " 

Oh,  the  tremendous  importance  of  the  little 
word ''pass";  the  frightful  significance  of  the 
"percent."  upon  which  the  passing^  is  done  1  Rain 
and  dew  and  sunshine,  the  winds  of  the  heavens, 
the  stars  in  their  courses,  create  and  sustain 
"my  percentage."  In  it  is  included  spring, 
summer,  autumn,  and  winter,  all  the  signs  of  the 
zodiac,  a*nd  the  thirty-two  points  of  the  compass. 
It  is  "  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  first  and  the 
last,  the  beginning  and  the  end."  School  is 
becoming  to  many  of  our  young  people  exactly 
what  was  stated  in  a  boy's  composition  : 

"  Goin  to  school  is  to  be  marked  every  day 
and  examined  on  paper  when  Teacher  gits  Time 
and  then  marked  again  and  then  promoted  and 
then  to  graduate  and  git  flowers  if  your  a  girl 
and  go  to  college  if  your  a  boy.  And  I  almost 
forfrot  the  vacations  which  I  and  the  rest  of  the 


**  The    Young  Idea'*  197 

fellers  like  the  best  of  all  of  it."  Is  this,  then, 
what  education  has  come  to  mean  ?  Let  thou- 
sands of  teachers  testify,  if  evidence  is  wanted 
and  they  can  be  induced  to  run  the  risk  of  giv- 
ing it. 

It  is  said  that  there  is  no  loss  without  some 
small  gain.  Well  for  us  and  for  our  children 
if  that  be  so.  \\\  the  particular  case  under  con- 
sideration, there  is  some  profit  with  all  the  plague. 
The  correct  calculation  of  the  credits  upon  these 
papers  requires  a  vast  amount  of  frantic  figuring, 
thereby  furnishing  capital  mathematical  exercise, 
especially  when  the  number  of  pupils  in  a  divi- 
sion, the  number  of  divisions  in  a  class,  the 
number  of  classes  in  the  school,  the  number  of 
lessons  in  a  day,  the  number  of  days  in  a  week, 
the  number  of  weeks  in  a  term,  the  number  of 
terms  in  a  year  and  the  number  of  the  examina- 
tion questions,  are  all  added  to  the  sum  total,  to 
be  divided  by  another  sum  total,  the  inevitable 
fraction  reduced  to  a  decimal  and  carried  out 
five  places  to  expire  in  a  plus  or  minus, — most 
likely,  the  latter.  And  if  the  gain  is  so  great  to 
each  individual,  think  of  the  benefit  to  the  fav- 
ored teacher,  privileged  to  repeat  this  profitable 
process  as  many  times  as  she  has  pupils  in  her 
class  and  opportunities  for  examining  them ! 

There  is  still  another  benefit  accruing  to  the 
teacher,  not  shared  by  the  pupils.  *'  During  the 
past  five  years,"  says  Dr.  Harlow,  '*I  have  pre- 
served most  of  the  examination  papers  which 


19^  ''  The    Young  I  dear 

have  been  written  for  me.  Whenever  there  is 
any  danger  of  my  becoming  too  hilarious,  I  can 
sober  myself  at  once  by  opening  the  closet  and 
gazing  thoughtfully  upon  this  literary  skeleton, 
which  has  already  assumed  such  vast  propor- 
tions." Herein  lies  a  valuable  suggestion  for 
teachers.  To  those  who  have  in  the  same  way 
preserved  these  "  literary  remains,"  how  exhil- 
arating the  prospect  of  the  use  to  which  they 
can  be  put  !  And  teachers  are  usually  in  need 
of  sobering.  Gay  and  giddy  creatures,  who  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  sit  in  a  big  chair  on  a 
platform  a  few  hours,  on  five  days  out  of  seven, 
to  '*  hear  lessons,"  with  long  vacations  and  enor- 
mous salaries, — in  some  cases  as  high  as  seven 
dollars  a  week, — such  creatures,  like  one  of  Mrs. 
Whitney's  heroines,  ''  can  take  a  great  amount 
of  sobering."  They  need  it  ;  they  ought  to  pine 
for  it.  To  those  who  have  so  far  made  no  at- 
tempt to  gather  such  a  collection, — "  a  word  to 
the  wise  is  sufficient."  It  is  not  a  difficult  thing 
to  do  and  there  are  frequent  opportunities  for 
doing  it.  Waste  no  time.  Set  about  it  at  once. 
So  shall  the  profession  grow  in  sobriety,  dignity, 
and  worth,  while  development  shall  be  given  to 
brain  and  spirit, 

"  From  the  toil 
Of  dropping  buckets  into  empty  wells 
And  growing  old  in  drawing  nothing  up." 

But  setting  aside  these   incidental  benefits  to 
the  teacher  and  the  taught,  what  is  the  practical 


"  The    Young  Idea.'*  199 

outcome  of  the  examination  system  when  viewed 
in  the  most  comprehensive  way  ?  Stating  the 
proposition  in  syllogistic  form, — All  examina- 
tions are  good  for  schools  ;  all  schools  now 
have  examinations  ;  therefore  all  schools  are 
better  than  ever  before, — can  we  draw  a  satis- 
factory conclusion  ?  Failing  in  this,  must  we  not 
in  some  way  modify  our  premises?  What  is  the 
testimony  of  competent  witnesses  on  this  subject? 

The  Superintendent  of  the  Cincinnati  schools 
gives  his  :  **  For  over  thirty  years  pupils  have 
been  promoted  in  these  schools  almost  exclu- 
sively  on  the  results  of  written  examinations. 
The  influence  has  been  evil  and  that  continually. 
It  has  fostered  and  almost  necessitated  mechan- 
ical methods  of  teaching.  The  principal  of  the 
first  grammar  school  in  one  of  the  largest  cities 
of  the  country,  once  said  in  response  to  the 
inquiry  why  so  much  time  was  devoted  to  the 
memorizing  of  dates  in  history  and  rules  in 
mensuration,  '  My  success  as  a  teacher  is  mea- 
sured by  the  per  cent,  of  correct  answers  my 
pupils  give  to  the  series  of  questions  submitted 
by  the  examiner  for  promotion  to  the  high  school. 
I  cannot  stop  to  inquire  whether  my  instruction 
is  right  or  wrong.  I  must  prepare  my  wares  for 
the  market.'  " 

Col.  Parker  declares  :  '^  The  demand  fixed  by 
examiners  is  for  cram  and  not  for  art,  and  as 
long  as  the  demand  exists  so  long  will  the  teach- 
er's mind  shrivel  and  dwarf  in  the  everlasting 


200  '<  The    Young  Idear 

tread-mill  that  has  no  beginning  or  end,  and  the 
more  it  turns  the  more  it  creaks." 

Answer,  teachers,  all  over  this  broad  universe 
where  examination  days  are  counted  in  the  school 
calendar, — are  these  statements  true  of  you  and 
of  your  pupils  ?  If  not,  why  do  you  not  con- 
scientiously contradict  them  ? 

But  while,  as  a  Southern  preacher  remarked 
to  his  delinquent  congregation,  ''  My  brutherin', 
these  things  hadn't  orter  so  to  be  nohow,"  the 
profession  finds  that  *'  they  ^/>,"  and  is  at  its 
wits*  end  to  devise  ways  and  means  for  gather- 
ing its  lawful  crops  into  the  garner  without  let- 
ting the  young  reapers  and  binders  stab  them- 
selves to  death  with  their  sickles,  or  smother 
themselves  and  their  teachers  under  the  stacks 
of  grain. 

The  traveler,  journeying  on  foot  along  the 
country,  occasionally  finds  it  necessary  to  take 
note  from  sun  and  shadow  of  his  rate  of  pro- 
gress. The  sea-ca,ptain  daily  measures  his  speed 
and  determines  his  locality.  The  tradesman 
balances  his  books  as  regularly  as  the  months 
come  round,  while  no  merchant  fails  to  *'  take 
account  of  stock  "  before  beginning  a  new  com- 
mercial year.  Who  wonders  at  these  business 
transactions,  or  quarrels  with  the  way  in  which 
they  are  conducted  ?  The  teacher's  equally 
legitimate  measure  of  progress  is  the  stock-tak- 
ing of  the  contents  of  his  literary  warehouses. 
Why  should  it  prove  to  be  such  a  season  of 


''  The    Young  Idear  201 

weeping  and  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth,  for 
teachers  and  pupils  alike  ? 

An  examination' is  for  the  purpose  of  finding 
out  what  a  pupil  knows,  and  a  written  examina- 
tion has  the  additional  object  of  giving  him  prac- 
tice in  the  expression  of  his  knowledge  on  paper. 
Are  not  both  results  legitimate  and  desirable  ? 
The  child  is  supposed  to  know  something,  and 
his  teacher  fondly  hopes  that  the  amount  of  his 
knowledge  is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  labor 
expended  upon  him.  But  blessed  is  he  who  ex- 
pects nothing,  for  he  can  not  be  disappointed, 
and  if  he  receives  anything  he  is  just  so  much 
ahead  of  his  anticipations. 

To  ask  questions, — what  is  easier?  To  ask 
too  many,  to  ask  too  hard  ones,  to  confuse,  dis- 
courage, exasperate  children, — what  is  easier? 
And,  moreover,  is  there  anything  easier  than  to 
do  all  this  from  the  best  of  motives  and  in  utter 
ignorance  of  any  wrong  ? 

Froude  asserts:  ''  The  demands  which  intelli- 
gent people  imagine  that  they  can  make  on  the 
minds  of  students  is  something  amazing.  I  will 
give  you  a  curious  illustration  of  it.  When  the 
competitive  examination  system  was  first  set  on 
foot,  a  board  of  examiners  met  to  draw  up  their 
papers  of  questions.  The  scale  of  requirement 
had  first  to  be  settled.  Among  them  a  highly 
distinguished  man,  who  was  to  examine  in 
English  history,  announced  that,  for  himself,  he 
meant  to  set  a  paper  for  which  Macaulay  might 


202  ''  The    Young  Idea,'' 

possibly  get  full  marks,  and  he  wished  the  other 
examiners  to  imitate  him  in  the  other  subjects. 
I  saw  the  paper  which  he  set.  I  could  myself 
have  answered  two  questions  out  of  a  dozen. 
And  it  was  gravely  expected  that  ordinary  young 
men  of  twenty-one,  who  were  to  be  examined 
also  in  Greek  and  Latin,  in  moral  philosophy, 
in  ancient  history,  in  mathematics,  and  in  two 
modern  languages,  were  to  show  a  proficiency  in 
each  and  all  of  these  subjects  which  a  man  of 
mature  age  and  extraordinary  talents,  like  Mac- 
aulay,  who  had  devoted  his  whole  time  to  that 
special  study,  had  attained  only  in  one  of  them." 

The  same  principle,  less  in  degree  but  pre- 
cisely the  same  in  kind,  obtains  in  our  American 
grammar  and  high  schools.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  the  mere  word  ^'Examination"  cleaves  like 
a  two-edged  sword  the  hearts  of  discouraged 
children  and  despairing  teachers  ?  Can  the 
force  of  folly  farther  go,  than  in  these  prepos- 
terous requirements  ? 

The  same  author  continues,  *'  Under  this  sys- 
tem, teaching  becomes  cramming  ;  an  enormous 
accumulation  of  propositions  of  all  sorts  and 
kinds  is  thrust  dowm  the  students'  throats,  to  be 
poured  out  again  into  examiners'  laps."  This 
process  is  defended  by  Prof.  Jevons.  He 
assumes  that  the  struggle  to  swallow,  to  retain 
for  a  certain  time,  and  to  successfully  cast  out 
again  this  mass  of  information,  is  a  test  of  the 
power  of  the   student,   proof  of  his   ability  to 


"  The   Young  Idea'*  203 

manage  other  equally  difficult  matters  in  the 
course  of  his  business  life.  But  is  not  a  high 
mark  in  such  examinations  more  an  indication 
of  the  ability  to  recollect  words  than  of  the 
intellectual  power  resulting  from  thorough  train- 
ing ?  It  is  the  philosopher  Locke  who  tells  us 
that  ''  the  gift  of  memory  is  owing  to  a  happy 
constitution,  not  to  any  habitual  improvement 
got  by  exercise."  That  so  many  students  do 
successfully  pass  these  tests  is  owing  more  to 
their  fortunate  possession  of  this  particular  con- 
stitution than  to  anything  else,  and  is  no  argu- 
ment for  the  waste  of  time  and  labor  involved 
in  putting  pupils  through  these  complicated 
mental  maneuvers. 

But  what  of  those  pupils,  sometimes  the 
brightest  ones  in  the  class,  whose  wits  seem 
driven  into  limbo  by  the  mere  sight  of  the 
examination  paper  ?  Like  King  Duncan's  two 
chamberlains  whose  possets  w^ere  drugged  by 
Lady  Macbeth,  ^'  Memory,  the  warder  of  the 
brain,  becomes  a  fume,  and  the  receipt  of 
reason  a  limbeck  only."  In  too  many  cases, 
"their  drenched  natures  lie  as  in  a  death." 

Little  Tom,  the  chimney-sweeper,  the  hero  of 
Charles  Kingsley's  fascinating  romance,  "  Water 
Babies,"  found  himself  in  the  course  of  his 
wanderings  in  the  Island  of  Tomtoddies, — "  all 
heads  and  no  bodies."  Tom,  as  he  approached 
it,  heard  grumbling  and  grunting  and  growling 
and   wailing    and  weeping   and    whining,    then 


204  ''  The   Young  Idea.'' 

began  to  hear  words — the  Tomtoddies'  song 
which  they  sing  morning  and  evening  and  all 
night  long,  to  their  great  idol  Examination, — "  I 
can't  learn  my  lesson,  the  Examiner's  coming  !  " 
and  that  was  the  only  song  which  they  knew. 
Anxious  to  get  some  help  from  Tom,  they 
asked  him  questions  :  *^  What  is  the  latitude  and 
longitude  of  Snooksville  in  Norman's  County, 
Oregon,  United  States  ?  "  *'  What  was  the  name 
of  Mutius  Scaevola's  thirteenth  cousin's  grand- 
mother's maid's  cat?"  and  another  in  despera- 
tion inquired,  ^'  Can  you  tell  me  the  name  of  a 
place  that  nobody  ever  heard  of,  where  nothing 
ever  happened,  in  a  country  which  has  not  been 
discovered  yet  ?  " 

"And  what  good  on  earth  will  it  do  if  I  tell 
you  ?  "  quoth  Tom. 

Well,  they  didn't  know.  All  they  knew  was, 
the  Examiner  was  coming  ! 

As  regards  practice  in  rhetorical  expression, 
how  much  attention  is  paid  to  form  or  arrange- 
ment in  the  pupil's  breathless  plunges  after  facts 
lurking  somewhere  in  the  depths  of  his  memory, 
to  be  drawn  up  with  as  little  mutilation  as  possi- 
ble, and  flung  upon  the  paper  as  a  gasping, 
wriggling  fish  is  flung  upon  the  bank  of  a  stream  ? 
If  Lord  Bacon  knows  what  he  is  talking  about 
when  he  says,  "  The  art  of  well  delivering  the 
knowledge  we  possess  is  among  the  secrets  left 
to  be  discovered  by  future  generations,"  teachers, 
at  least,  are  forced  to  admit  that  this  present 


*'  The   Voting  Idear  205 

generation  is  not  one  of  the  specified  "future" 
ones,  judging  from  such   forms  of  expression  as, 

"Uses  of  the  fat  in  the  body  is  to  covered  the 
bones  depend  upon  age  race  weather  climate 
and  to  covered  the  muscular  and  they  are  about 
one  twentieth  of  the  body  is  fat." 

"  When  the  price  of  several  articles  we  find 
by  the  same  of  articles  we  dividing  by  the 
artibles  we  have  the  factors  of  a  number  are  the 
division." 

"  Sir  Philip  Sidneys  works  were  not  much  but 
he  was  so  perfectly  in  his  manners  we  feel  in- 
clined to  overlook  his  writings." 

'*  Examination  questions,"  says  Dr.  Harlow, 
"  are  like  the  examiner.  Some  questions,  if 
fully  answered,  would  require  whole  volumes. 
A  pupil  who  is  poorly  prepared  is  pleased  when 
he  sees  them.  He  can  conceal  his  ignorance  by 
wandering  at  his  own  sweet  will  over  a  wide 
field  of  superficial  requirements." 

**  Thomas  A  Beckitt  lived  sort  of  princeley  but 
when  he  was  archbishop  of  canturberry  he  threw 
away  all  his  splendid  Clothes  dident  go  to  any 
more  Balls  and  theatres  and  dressed  just  like  a 
nun.  He  had  more  Religion  than  he  used  to 
have  but  he  was  not  as  good  as  he  used  to  be 
but  all  through  the  Reign  before  all  the  clergy- 
men had  groan  very  powerful  they  murdered 
thousands  of  People  and  if  they  were  ministers 
the  Folks  thought  everything  th  y  did  was  all 
right  Henry  said  the  judges  should  try  them  just 


2o6  <'  The    Young  Idea!' 

as  if  they  were  other  people  Beckitt  dident  like 
this  and  had  lots  of  Fights  with  the  King  and 
one  day  the  King  set  up  four  nights  to  kill  him  and 
he  conspired  before  the  altar  exclaimeing  is  there 
no  one  to  rid  me  of  this  impertinunt  Priest  and 
when  the  King  heard  it  he  said  he  was  conster- 
nation and  he  was  martered  and  his  tomb  was 
observed  once  in  50  years  People  went  there  on 
foot  on  picnicks  and  they  used  to  have  jubilees." 
*'  Pockahontus  was  a  young  Indian  girl  she 
pronounced  the  sentenc  of  deth  upon  her  and 
she  was  the  favorit  daughter  of  a  chief  who  w^as 
about  only  12  she  merried  wuth  the  conscence 
of  her  farther  mr  rolf  and  she  was  made  useful 
to  keep  the  piece  in  the  indains  and  colonoists 
and  when  she  was  twenty  to  she  died  and 
returned  to  America  and  left  one  son  in  the  most 
respectable  familyes  in  Virginia." 

"  Bones  is  the  framework  of  the  body.    If  I  had 

no  bones  in  me  I  should  not  have  so  much  shape 

as  I  have  now.     If  I    had   no  bones,  my  brain, 

S^  heart,  lungs,  and  larger  blood  vessels  would  be 

/  lying  round  in  me,  and  might  get  hurt.      If  my 

\  bones  were  burned  I  should  be  brittle,  because 

rit  would  take  the  animal  out  of  me.     If  I  w^as 

Uoaked  in  acid  I  should  be   limber.      I'd  rather 

V  be  soaked  than  burned.     Some  of  my  bones  don*t 

grow  close  to  my  others  snug  like  the  branches 

to  the  trunk  of  a  tree.      The   reason    why  they 

don't  grow  that  way  is  because  they  have  joints. 

Joints  is  good  things  to  have  in  bones.     All  my 


*'  The   Young  Idea''  207 

bones  put  together  in  their  right  place  make  a 
skeleton.  If  I  leave  out  any  or  put  any  in  the 
wrong  place  it  aint  no  skeleton.  Some  animals 
have  their  skeletons  on  the  outside.  I  am  glad 
I  aint  them  animals,  for  my  skeleton,  like  it  is 
on  the  chart,  would  not  look  very  well  on  my 
outside." 

Why  is  it  not  as  logical  to  examine  in  order  to 
find  whether  a  pupil  should  be  allowed  to  con- 
tinue in  a  class,  as  to  decide  his  fitness  for  pro- 
motion ?  Could  not  an  immense  amount  of  time 
be  saved  in  that  way,  to  say  nothing  of  avoiding 
discouragement  on  the  part  of  both  pupil  and 
teacher  ?  In  Omaha  this  plan  has  been  found  to 
work  successfully.  In  some  schools  pupils  con- 
ceded to  be  superior  in  every  respect  are  ex- 
cused from  the  unnecessary  formality  of  an  ex- 
amination,— an  immense  saving  of  labor.  Can 
any  harm  result  from  this  method  ?  In  some 
schools  examinations  have  been  entirely  given 
up  and  the  teacher's  judgment  is  accepted  as 
decisive  regarding  the  standing  of  each  pupil. 
This  plan  does  not  in  all  cases  prove  satisfactory. 
Of  course,  teachers  should  be  infallible,  possess- 
ing divine  wisdom  without  a  touch  of  human 
weakness.  Perhaps  such  do  exist  in  some  of 
Bacon's  **  future  generations,"  but  at  present  we 
must  be  satisfied  with  mere  human  beings  in  all 
professions.  A  teacher  may  be  partial  to  a  few 
pupils,  as  a  mother  is  often  found  to  be,  con- 
cerning one  member  of  the  family,  though  both 


2o8  "  The    Young  Idea!' 

mother  and  teacher  are  quick  to  resent  any  such 
implication,  and  generally  seem  unconscious  of 
it.  The  deportment  of  a  troublesome  child 
may  easily  bias  the  judgment  of  a  teacher; 
his  personal  taste  in  the  matter  of  studies  may 
lead  him  to  place  a  higher  estimate  upon  the 
work  done  in  some  branches  than  in  others. 
Much  injustice  may  be  done  children  by  the  best- 
intentioned  teachers,  and  against  injustice  of  any 
sort  each  child  has  a  right  to  be  protected  as  far 
as  possible. 

But,  as  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  decision 
can  be  safely  left  with  the  instructor,  it  should 
be  a  comparatively  easy  matter  to  supplement 
his  opinion  or  to  test  it  in  doubtful  cases.  Is  it 
fair  or  logical  that  his  daily  and  hourly  experience 
with  a  class  for  months  should  be  utterly  ignored, 
and  all  decision  made  dependent  upon  the  results 
of  a  few  hours  spent  by  the  distressed  and  ter- 
rified pupils  in  the  use  of  pen,  ink,  and  paper  ? 

The  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Allegheny,  Pa., 
says  :  *'  The  teacher  who  is  clamorous  for  pupils 
to  be  promoted  without  examination,  gives  ample 
evidence,  in  my  judgment,  of  poorly  prepared 
classes."  (What  a  compliment  to  teachers  !) 
"  No  business  ever  prospers  where  the  cashiers 
are  allowed  to  audit  their  own  accounts."  As  if 
cashiers  ever  did  "audit  their  own  accounts  "! 
This  is  a  poor  metaphor  for  an  illustration  of  the 
case,  but  as  the  case  itself  is  a  poor  one  the  fig- 
ure is  in  keeping.     Still  it  is   suggestive   of  one 


"  The    Yomig  Idea''  209 

of  the  weakest  points  in  our  educational  system 
— that  of  looking  upon  pupils  as  so  many 
blank  books,  each  one  to  be  written  through 
and  filled  up  by  educational  scribes,  with  as 
much  skill  and  despatch  as  possible,  so  many 
words  to  a  page,  so  many  pages  to  a  chapter, 
and  as  many  chapters  as  the  course  of  study 
calls  for. 

The  late  Henry  F.  Harrington  of  New  Bedford, 
Mass.,  a  man  of  eminent  ability  and  unquestioned 
devotion  to  our  schools,  exclaims:  **  What  a  per- 
fect farce  a  test  examination  becomes,  subject,  as 
its  transaction  and  results  necessarily  are  to  con- 
tingencies which  negative  its  justice  in  the  face  of 
the  positive  knowledge  which  the  teacher  pos- 
sesses of  the  standing  of  every  member  of  his 
school !  How  perfectly  the  daily  intercourse  of 
the  schoolroom  enables  the  teacher  to  know 
thoroughly  the  inward  character  as  well  as  the 
outward  form  of  every  one.  If  when  an 
exauiination.  has  been  finished  and  its  per 
cents,  recorded,  the  teacher  says,  '  Such  a 
pupil  has  succeeded  who  was  not  worthy  to 
succeed,'  or,  '  Such  a  pupil  has  failed  who 
ranks  in  merit  above  many  who  have  won,' 
how  his  judgment,  in  the  form  of  conscience, 
overthrows  the  decision  of  figures  and  ren- 
ders an  insistence  upon  it  an  injustice  and  a 
shame  !  " 

To  say  nothing  of  the  ways  and  mrans  by 
which  examination  res. ills  are  obtained,  what  is 


2IO  <<  The    Young  Idea:* 

the  practical  value  of  them  ?  Theoretically  they 
are  to  determine  the  pupil's  fitness  for  pro- 
motion. Assuming  that  the  mental  measure  is 
in  every  case  correct,  does  it  follow  that  the  pu- 
pil is  moved  along  accordingly  ?  O  theory  and 
practice,  how  difficult  you  find  it  to  keep  step  ! 
The  boy  has  a  body  as  well  as  a  brain,  a  fact 
usually  overlooked  until  time  for  promotion. 
The  body  necessarily  occupies  just  so  many 
inches  of  space,  so  the  body  as  well  as  the 
brain  must  be  measured.  Nor  is  this  all.  There 
are  just  so  many  rooms  in  the  school  building, 
just  so  many  seats  in  each  room  ;  forty  seats 
can  hardly  be  made  to  accommodate  fifty  pupils  ; 
there  are  ten  vacant  seats  in  the  room  below. 
What  a  simplification  of  the  whole  matter  to  draw 
lots  and  keep  back  the  extra  ten  pupils!  But 
with  fifty  seats  in  the  higher  room  and  only  forty 
pupils  to  fill  them,  ten  more,  regardless  of  per- 
centage, must  be  promoted  from  the  lower  room, 
provided  there  is  that  amount  of  surplus  furni- 
ture. No  elaborate  calculation  is  necessary  for 
this  sort  of  transaction  ;  a  little  mental  arith- 
metic is  sufficient.     *'  How  easy  is  it  then  !  " 

Truly,  "  Promotion  cometh  not  from  the  east, 
nor  from  the  west,  nor  from  the  south,"  as  sayeth 
the  Psalmist. 

And  what  is  the  value  of  the  "  exhibitions " 
and  the  "  graduations  "?  In  the  words  of 
one  of  these  graduates,  *'  We  can  write  and 
read   our  own  compositions — essays.     We  have 


''  The   Young  Idea:'  211 

a  teacher  to  help  us  compose  them,  and  an- 
other teacher  to  train  us  to  deliver  them. 
Those  of  us  who  have  extra  talent  are  to  try 
for  the  valedictory.  We  are  excused  from  our 
regular  studies  to  read  up  for  it.  We've  got 
piles  of  books,  and  the  composition  teacher  has 
given  us  lots  of  references,  and  we're  going  to 
make  heaps  of  notes  of  everything  we  can  find 
on  *The  Intrinsic  Value  of  a  Symmetrical  Edu- 
cation,' and  Eliza  Jane  Metonymy  is  writing 
just  a  lovely  poem  about  Middle  Aged  Myths, 
and  the  rhyme  is  just  perfect  only  in  six  or  eight 
places,  but  Miss  Literati  will  fix  that  up  for  her, 
and  our  class  motto  is  Non  Co?npus  Mentis  which 
means  '  If  you  know  a  good  deal  a  good  deal  is 
expected  of  you"  or  something  like  that,  I'm  not 
quite  sure  what  it  means  and  none  of  us  have 
ever  studied  Latin,  but  it  looks  just  too  perfectly 
lovely  for  anything  worked  out  in  white  carna- 
tions on  a  pink  background." 

White  dresses  ?  Certainly,  that  the  effect  may 
be  pleasing  to  the  eye,  though  the  costume  re- 
quires a  carriage.  Gloves  ?  Of  course,  in  order 
to  be  "consistent"  and  thereby  add  **a  jewel" 
to  other  adornments.  Flowers  ?  By  all  means. 
All  girls  receive  flowers  at  graduation — big 
baskets  and  harps,  and  horseshoes,  and  the 
most  popular  girl  is  known  by  the  size  and 
number  of  the  offerings.  If,  as  occasionally 
happens,  some  ''  hand-to-mouth  "  family,  those 
"poor,  but    respectable"   persons    so    common 


212  **  The    Young  Idear 

in  the  community,  cannot, — after  paying  the 
rent,  buying  shoes  for  little  Johnnie,  and  put- 
ting sufficient  food  on  the  table, — have  enough 
left  over  to  pay  for  Mary  Ann's  dress  and 
gloves  and  flowers  and  carriage — why,  Mary 
Ann  either  stays  at  home  to  put  little  Johnnie 
to  bed,  or,  in  her  best  Sunday  gown,  slips  in 
among  the  audience,  gazing  with  a  sort  of  "  so 
near  and  yet  so  far"  feeling  at  her  more  fortu- 
nate, though  perhaps  even  less  brilliant,  class- 
mates. 

Why  the  public  should  be  led  to  look  forward 
to  any  such  periodical  and  gratuitous  entertain- 
ment, why  pupils  should  claim  it  as  an  inaliena- 
ble right,  why  parents  should  be  levied  upon  for 
the  funds  required  for  this  display,  nobody 
really  seems  to  know.  The  public  enjoys  it, 
the  pupils  want  it,  the  parents  expect  it.  I'o  be 
sure,  it  costs  considerable  in  many  ways,  but 
then,  unlike  Christmas,  graduation  comes  but 
once  in  a  life-time.  Do  not  rnind  any  extra  labor 
on  the  part  of  the  teachers, — they  would  not 
dare  to  grumble  even  if  they  had  the  disposition  ; 
do  not  consider  the  extra  drain  upon  the  strefigth 
of  special  pupils, — they  are  happy  martyrs  ;  do 
not  count  the  cost  to  the  parents  of  any  finan- 
cial sacrifice  which  they  must  make  in  order  that 
Sarah- Jane  may  appear  as  well  as  the  rest  of 
her  class.  The  public — that  great,  vague,  irre- 
sponsible, unthinking,  but  exacting  public — finds 
it  pleasant  to  sit  and  look  and  listen  to  the  bloom- 


"  The    Young  Idea''  213 

ing  young  girls,  who,  in  pretty  clothes,  among 
banks  of  flowers,  read,  recite,  and  sing  for  them. 
The  young  girls  enjoy  the  excitement :  the  bril- 
liance, the  beauty  of  the  occasion  ;  the  rapt 
attention  and  pleased  applause  of  the  audience. 
And  as  our  genial  Holmes  says  of  similar  condi- 
tions, *'  I  cannot,  for  the  life  of  me  find  anything 
Satanic  in  all  this.  Tell  me,  only  between  our- 
selves, if  some  of  these  things  are  not  desirable 
enough  in  their  way  ? "  But  how  about  the 
educational  way  ? 

And  what  is  exhibited  by  the  "  exhibition  "  .^ 
Do  the  five  or  ten  chosen  ones  who  have  re- 
ceived an  immense  amount  of  extra  intellectual 
and  elocutionary  drill,  fairly  represent  the  aver- 
age mental  and  oratorical  ability  of  the  class? 

Is  it  desirable  that  education  shall  develop 
the  judgment,  enabling  it  to  distinguish  between 
truth  and  falsehood,  value  and  worthlessness, 
crudity  and  culture  ?  Shall  it  give  a  sense  of 
consistency  as  shown  in  the  relation  of  income 
to  outgo,  the  worth  and  use  of  time,  amount  and 
result  of  effort  ?  Shall  it  foster  economy  not 
only  of  money,  but  of  time,  force,  and  feeling, 
often  more  valuable  than  dollars  and  cents  ? 
Shall  it,  in  short,  inculcate  an  understanding  of 
the  general  fitness  of  things  ?  It  is  the  dictum 
of  Matthew  Arnold  that  ''  the  chief  elements 
of  education  are  sobriety  and  proportion." 
What  amount  of  these  two  elements  is  cultivated 
in  the  ordinary  school  display  ? 


214  "  The    Young  Idea.'' 

In  the  public  school,  established  on  demo- 
cratic principles,  each  pupil  is  equally  entitled 
to  instruction,  but  on  improved  common-sense 
principles,  let  extra  hours  of  labor  be  spent  upon 
those  who  need  it  least.  The  best  natural  writ- 
ers shall  be  stimulated  to  literary  effort,  the  best 
natural  speakers  be  drilled  in  elocutionary  prac- 
tice. Thus  can  be  made  a  sensible  and  practi- 
cal application  of  the  doctrine  of  the  conser- 
vation of  energy,  and  thereby  shall  the  Script- 
ures be  fulfilled, — To  him  that  hath  talent  shall 
be  given  extra  assistance  in  its  development, 
while  from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken 
away  what  little  opportunity  he  is  entitled  to 
have. 

Are  not  the  remedies  for  the  evils  of  cram- 
ming, examinations,  promotions,  and  exhibitions, 
the  same  as  may  reasonably  be  suggested  for 
all  the  shortcomings  of  our  schools, — less  push 
and  more  progress  ;  less  percentage  and  more 
profit ;  less  show  and  more  substance  ? 


THE    END. 


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